Cognitive impairment begins much earlier than one might imagine, precisely from the age of 28. For the week dedicated to the Prevention of Mental Aging we interviewed Professor Giuseppe Iannoccari, a neuropsychologist to understand what to do to keep our brain young and efficient.
Interview with Prof. Giuseppe Iannoccari
Neuropsychologist, professor of Human Sciences at the State University of Milan and President of the Assomensana association
There is little to joke about when it comes to cognitive impairment. This is not a problem that only affects the elderly. Mental aging begins much earlier than one might imagine. Precisely at 28 years old. Yes, that’s right, even before we reach the fateful 30, we begin to lose one hundred thousand neurons a day. “If we consider that we have about 100 billion in total, it means that every year there is a loss of efficiency of about 1% and that at 50 we would have already lost 20% of lucidity and at 80 years even 50% ” the president of Assomensana explains to Fanpage.it Giuseppe Iannoccari, neuropsychologist. Of course, you may also be lucky enough to be gods greenager O supeger that is, people who inexplicably maintain a healthy brain and an efficient mind even going on with the years. “These are people who at 80 have abilities comparable to people of 50. This obviously depends on an innate attitude, as well as genetics, to keep the brain always in training “.
How to have an efficient brain
The main problem of cognitive impairment is the repetitiveness. “In the first thirty years we all live a phase of exploration, of curiosity, we face different situations. After that we all tend to specialize in something and always use those same skills. The brain is no longer stimulated as in the past and begins to become habitual “. Habit is therefore not only the grave of love relationships but also a problem for our brain. “On the other hand, those who are curious, study, learn new things, are mentally lively can reduce neuronal loss by 50% “. This will mean that by the age of 50 they will not have lost 20% of their neurons, but only 10%”. To have a trained brain you need to keep a curiosity alive, avoid numbness and every now and then let us also get bored. “In my book “The ten pillars of an efficient brain“(edited by Franco Angeli) I summarize the ten conditions necessary to keep a young brain at all ages: nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress management, positive thinking, emotional management, mental gymnastics, socialization, motivation to act and use of new technologies. These are all aspects that concern our daily life and that can negatively or positively influence cognitive decline “.
The importance of sleep
Among the ten pillars of Iannoccari one of the most underrated is perhaps the sleep. We underestimate it from a cognitive point of view, not considering it a useful moment for learning or more generally for doing, but the hours of rest are instead essential and among the most important for our brain. “Sleep is the gardener of the mind. The night is important because through the dream activity the brain goes to thin out the information that we do not need, that we have accumulated during the day, and consolidates the most important ones, those that we need for our daily life “. But in addition to consolidating our memories, rest also plays an additional essential function for the health of our brain: “At night the brain shrinks, shrinks like a sponge and circulates more liquor, the cerebrospinal fluid, which has the function of taking away all the waste of metabolism and cleans the brain, thus preserving it from inflammation that is a problem for the mental aging “.
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The importance of boredom
We are obsessed with doing. Boredom is not an option within our busy and busy days. And if it is true that keeping busy, giving space to new stimuli helps the brain to remain efficient, it is also true that boredom is as essential as sleep to counteract cognitive decline. “Spending time doing absolutely nothing, contemplating the void or the landscape, is useful because it is in these situations that a brain network is activated thanks to which ideas are put in order. Is called network di default, thanks to this network while the thought wanders, without being concentrated on some activity to be carried out in the external world, the memories are consolidated and eliminates what is superfluous “. The default network is a kind of automatic pilot, starts an introspective activity that allows you to work on the past and also to make projections about the future, but to allow the default network to work it is important not to be engaged in any kind of cognitive activity.
New technologies: pros and cons
Technologies have improved our lives, no one can deny it. But an abuse of smartphones, tablets and all related apps, including social media, can cause an acceleration of cognitive decline. “Excessive use of technological devices can lead to some sort of functional fixity – explains Iannoccari – The visual field and also the mental field remain. Let’s imagine we are in front of a panorama, a sea or mountain landscape. Our gaze sweeps widely and even our thoughts follow it and are able to move in many directions and fronts. In front of the vertical smartphone screen, our space narrows and even the mental field narrows. We are focused (but not really focused) on what we read or watch and we are unable to create relationships or connections between different thoughts “. If on the one hand the pervasiveness of smartphones has endowed us with a great selective capacity, today we can immediately, with a glance, understand if a post, a sentence interests us or not and choose in a few seconds whether to stay or continue to ‘ flow ‘on the other side resulted in a fragmentation of concentration. “Today we can’t stay focused on something for too long, we struggle. A recent experiment has shown that it is impossible to go 15 minutes without doing anything. This experiment involved a person staying for a quarter of an hour closed alone in a room where there was absolutely nothing except a chair and a table and a device that, if touched, released small electric shocks. After 8 minutes most of the subjects started touching the device because it was impossible for them to be doing nothing, they preferred to take small shocks. This makes us understand the difficulty and in some cases the impossibility of remaining for too long without stimuli in rapid succession “.
Women or men: who gets old first?
Gender also matters in cognitive aging. To be disadvantaged are men who according to US research have a disadvantage of about 3 years compared to women. “Our research reveals an even more significant difference of about 5 years. The more you go on with the years, the more and more the difference is evident “. According to Iannoccari, the reasons for this gap are at least three: “In the first place women have a greater focus on well-being than men. Then men are more exposed to unhealthy environments and have less healthy habits than women, they smoke and drink more for example, and then have a greater propensity to serial work, unlike women who are more flexible and able to manage more. things at the same time “.
The brain needs novelty
The brain needs innovation to be efficient, of real stimuli on which to focus and apply. The hit and run stimuli, those that have the shape and sound of smartphone notifications are not enough. “Mental vivacity, curiosity, the desire to learn new things are essential to keep our brain young and to counteract cognitive decline “. After Covid and the lockdown, which caused mental numbness and a certain disorientation in all of us, it is now important to project ourselves towards a return to socialization. “Attending cultural events, going to the cinema, going out with friends is the way to recover the deficit that we accused during the closing months of the pandemic. Let’s not forget that the brain is plastic and its functions and capabilities can be restored thanks to external stimuli and exercises. And then it is important to remember that everything that is routine puts the brain on pause: let’s feed on novelty “.
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