If you ever get a chance to talk to Dr. Mike Merzenich, be assured he’ll fill you with a missionary’s zeal for brain fitness. You’ll leave the conversation wondering why everyone isn’t taking advantage of their brains’ natural abilities to improve. However, we know good habits aren’t embraced by our society overnight. It’s taken decades to get people talking about and taking action for things like physical fitness and smoking cessation.
I’m excited that we might be moving more swiftly in that direction on brain health. On January 3, New York Times editor Barbara Strauch published this article on how to train the aging brain. The point I want to make is not about the article itself but rather this: for days, it has been among the top emailed stories from the Times. Given everything that’s happening in our world, people are taking time to email each other a story about brain health! That’s exactly the kind of engagement we need to make brain training more… top of mind.