Boost Your Brain (44 page)

Acknowledgments

E
ARLY ON
in the process of writing my first book,
The Memory Cure,
I knew that it wouldn’t be long before I’d once again tackle the topic of memory and brain health. I also knew that when I did, luck would be on my side if I had two key players in my corner: HarperOne editor Nancy Hancock and literary agent Anna Ghosh. Their guidance and support, along with the help of HarperOne’s Elsa Dixon and Dianna Stirpe, were invaluable in bringing
Boost Your Brain
to life.

The staff of my Brain Center’s brain fitness program—on which this book is based—along with my executive team, David Abramson, Steve Dubin, Jeff Hamet, Chris Lindsay, and Petuna Selby, all gamely pitched in on book-related duties, offering advice, critiques, and support at every turn. I am particularly thankful to Dr. Eylem Sahin for reading the full manuscript carefully and providing us with detailed comments. My star pre-med student Brooke Lubinski helped at every stage of the game and on multiple occasions rushed to our aid to unearth an obscure reference, whip up a chart, or just brainstorm—invaluable assistance that made the task immeasurably easier, and this book better. Baltimore-based artist Ashley Milburn rounded out our corps of helpers, patiently sketching and re-sketching until neurons practically danced off the page.

I’d also like to thank a host of neuroscience and other experts, who spent time detailing their research and sharing their knowledge. They include: Paula Bickford, Michelle Carlson, Vincenza Castronovo, Kevin Crutchfield, Richard Davidson, Charles DeCarli, Helene Emsellem, Kirk Erickson, Fred Gage, Vladimir Hachinski, Sara Lazar, Bruce McEwen, Norman Salem, and Molly Wagster, along with Joseph Maroon and Gertjan DeKoning at DSM. I thank my dear friend the two-time U.S.A. Memory Champion, Nelson Dellis, for sharing his memory tricks with us.

Above all, I am most thankful to my coauthor Christina Breda Antoniades. She worked tirelessly and with great enthusiasm in crafting a compelling book proposal, thoroughly researching each chapter, and interviewing my colleagues to get firsthand accounts of their research. Through our hundreds of conversations, she patiently listened and made sense of my explanations of a vast array of complex neurology concepts—from the molecular mechanisms involved in brain development in the uterus to the latest brain imaging technologies. Ever the journalist, she volunteered to put herself through our twelve-week brain fitness program and experienced all the tests and procedures at my Brain Center (along with the benefit of a bigger, stronger brain) in order to best understand how and why the program works. I thank my friend, DSM’s Cassie France-Kelly, for introducing Christina to me.

Finally, this project would never have made it past the planning stage if it weren’t for the backing of our families. Heartfelt thanks to my wife, Bita, and to Christina’s husband, Spiro, whose patience and understanding allowed us to complete this book.

Notes

Introduction

1
. Majid Fotuhi, Vladimir Hachinski, and Peter J. Whitehouse, “Changing Perspectives Regarding Late-Life Dementia,”
Nature Reviews Neurology
 5, no. 12 (2009): 649–58.

2
. Majid Fotuhi, David Do, and Clifford Jack, “Modifiable Factors That Alter the Size of the Hippocampus with Aging,”
Nature Reviews Neurology
8, no. 4 (2012): 189–202.

3
. D. Erten-Lyons, R. L. Woltjer, H. Dodge, R. Nixon, R. Vorobik, J. F. Calvert, M. Leahy, T. Montine, and J. Kaye, “Factors Associated with Resistance to Dementia Despite High Alzheimer Disease Pathology,”
Neurology
72, no. 4 (2009): 354–60.

Chapter 1: Your Marvelous Mind

1
. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMDPP-Wy3sI.

2
. Nitin Gogtay, Jay N. Giedd, Leslie Lusk, Kiralee M. Hayashi, Deanna Greenstein, A. Catherine Vaituzis, Tom F. Nugent III, David H. Herman, Liv S. Clasen, Arthur W. Toga, Judith L. Rapoport, and Paul M. Thompson, “Dynamic Mapping of Human Cortical Development During Childhood Through Early Adulthood,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
101, no. 21 (2004): 8174–79.

3
. Elizabeth R. Sowell, Paul M. Thompson, and Arthur W. Toga, “Mapping Changes in the Human Cortex Throughout the Span of Life,”
Neuroscientist
 10, no. 4 (2004): 372–92.

Chapter 2: How to Grow a Brain

1
. Majid Fotuhi, Vladimir Hachinski, and Peter J. Whitehouse, “Changing Perspectives Regarding Late-Life Dementia,”
Nature Clinical Practice Neurology
 5, no. 12 (2009): 649–58.

2
. Majid Fotuhi, David Do, and Clifford Jack, “Modifiable Factors That Alter the Size of the Hippocampus with Aging,”
Nature Reviews Neurology
8, no. 4 (2012): 189–202.

3
. http://cogns.northwestern.edu/cbmg/plasticityInGMandWMreview2012.pdf; www.jneurosci.org/content/28/35/8655; www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21906988.

4
. Emma G. Duerden and Danièle Laverdure-Dupont, “Practice Makes Cortex,”
Journal of Neuroscience
28, no. 35 (2008): 8655-57.

5
. Gerd Kempermann, H. George Kuhn, and Fred Gage, “More Hippocampal Neurons in Adult Mice Living in an Enriched Environment,”
Nature
386, no. 6624 (1997): 493–95.

6
. Peter Eriksson, Ekaterina Perfilieva, Thomas Björk-Eriksson, Ann-Marie Alborn, Claes Nordborg, Daniel Peterson, and Fred Gage, “Neurogenesis in the Adult Human Hippocampus,”
Nature Medicine
 4, no. 11 (1998): 1313–17.

7
. Heidi Johansen-Berg, Cassandra Sampaio Baptista, and Adam G. Thomas, “Human Structural Plasticity at Record Speed,”
Neuron
 73, no. 6 (2012): 1058–60.

8
. D. Erten-Lyons,  R. L. Woltjer, H. Dodge, R. Nixon, R. Vorobik, J. F. Calvert, M. Leahy, T. Montine, and J. Kaye, “Factors Associated with Resistance to Dementia Despite High Alzheimer Disease Pathology,”
Neurology
72, no. 4 (2009): 354–60.

9
. Ian J. Deary, Jian Yang, Gail Davies, Sarah E. Harris, Albert Tenesa, David Liewald, Michelle Luciano, Lorna M. Lopez, Alan J. Gow, Janie Corley, Paul Redmond, Helen C. Fox, Suzanne J. Rowe, Paul Haggarty, Geraldine McNeill, Michael E. Goddard, David J. Porteous, Lawrence J. Whalley, John M. Starr, and Peter M. Visscher, “Genetic Contributions to Stability and Change in Intelligence from Childhood to Old Age,”
Nature
482, no. 7384 (2012): 212–15.

Chapter 3: Creating Your Twelve-Week Plan

1
. www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/Cholesterol/AboutCholesterol/What-Your-Cholesterol-Levels-Mean_UCM_305562_Article.jsp.

2
. Heidi Johansen-Berg, Cassandra Sampaio Baptista, and Adam G. Thomas, “Human Structural Plasticity at Record Speed,”
Neuron
 73, no. 6 (2012): 1058–60.

3
. Josef Shargorodsky, Sharon G. Curhan, Gary C. Curhan, and Roland Eavey, “Change in Prevalence of Hearing Loss in U.S. Adolescents,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
304, no. 7 (2010): 772–78.

4
. www.aoa.org/x5253.xml.

5
. N. Okamoto, M. Morikawa, K. Okamoto, N. Habu, J. Iwamoto, K. Tomioka, K. Saeki, M. Yanagi, N. Amano, and N. Kurumatani, “Relationship of Tooth Loss to Mild Memory Impairment and Cognitive Impairment: Findings from the Fujiwara-Kyo Study,”
Behavioral and Brain Functions 
31, no. 6 (2010): 77.

6
. M. A. Woo, P. M. Macey, G. C. Fonarow, M. A. Hamilton, and R. M. Harper, “Regional Brain Gray Matter Loss in Heart Failure,”
Journal of Applied Physiology
 95, no. 2 (2003): 677–84.

7
. O. P. Almeida, G. J. Garrido, C. Beer, N. T. Lautenschlager, L. Arnolda, N. P. Lenzo, A. Campbell, and L. Flicker, “Coronary Heart Disease Is Associated with Regional Grey Matter Volume Loss: Implications for Cognitive Function and Behaviour,”
Internal Medicine Journal
38, no. 7 (2008): 599–606.

8
. Rea Rodriguez-Raecke, Andreas Niemeier, Kristin Ihle, Wolfgang Ruether, and Arne May, “Brain Gray Matter Decrease in Chronic Pain Is the Consequence and Not the Cause of Pain,”
Journal of Neuroscience
29, no. 44 (2009): 13746–50.

9
. J. L. Phillips, L. A. Batten, F. Aldosary, P. Tremblay, and P. Blier, “Brain-Volume Increase with Sustained Remission in Patients with Treatment-Resistant Unipolar Depression,”
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
 73, no. 5 (2012): 625–31.

Chapter 4: The Fit-Brain Workout

1
. Henriette van Praag, Gerd Kempermann, and Fred Gage, “Running Increases Cell Proliferation and Neurogenesis in the Adult Mouse Dentate Gyrus,”
Nature Neuroscience
2, no. 3 (1999): 266–70.

2
. Kirk I. Erickson, Ruchika S. Prakash, Michelle W. Voss, Laura Chaddock, Liang Hu, Katherine S. Morris, Siobhan M. White, Thomas R. Wójcicki, Edward McAuley, and Arthur F. Kramer, “Aerobic Fitness Is Associated with Hippocampal Volume in Elderly Humans,”
Hippocampus
 19, no. 10 (2009): 1030–39.

3
. Kirk I. Erickson, Michelle W. Voss, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Chandramallika Basak, Amanda Szabo, Laura Chaddock, Jennifer S. Kim, Susie Heo, Heloisa Alves, Siobhan M. White, Thomas R. Wojcicki, Emily Mailey, Victoria J. Vieira, Stephen A. Martin, Brandt D. Pence, Jeffrey A. Woods, Edward McAuley, and Arthur F. Kramer, “Exercise Training Increases Size of Hippocampus and Improves Memory,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
108, no. 7 (2011): 3017–22.

4
. Laura Chaddock, Kirk I. Erickson, Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, Jennifer S. Kim, Michelle W. Voss, Matt VanPatter, Matthew B. Pontifex, Lauren B. Raine, Alex Konkel, Charles H. Hillman, Neal J. Cohen, and Arthur F. Kramer, “A Neuroimaging Investigation of the Association Between Aerobic Fitness, Hippocampal Volume, and Memory Performance in Preadolescent Children,”
Brain Research
1358 (2010): 172–83.

5
. Éadaoin W. Griffin, Sinéad Mulally, Carole Foley, Stuart A. Warmington, Shane M. O’Mara, and Áine M. Kelly, “Aerobic Exercise Improves Hippocampal Function and Increases BDNF in the Serum of Young Adult Males,”
Physiology and Behavior 
104, no. 5 (2011): 934–41.

6
. K. I. Erickson, C. A. Raji, O. L. Lopez, J. T. Becker, C. Rosano, a. b. Newman, H. M. Gach, p. m. Thompson, A. J. Ho, and L. H. Kuller, “Physical Activity Predicts Gray Matter Volume in Late Adulthood: The Cardiovascular Health Study,”
Neurology
 75, no. 16 (2010): 1415–22.

7
. S. J. Colcombe, K. I. Erickson, P. E. Scalf, J. S. Kim, R. Prakash, E. McAuley, S. Elavsky, D. X. Marquez, L. Hu, and A. F. Kramer, “Aerobic Exercise Training Increases Brain Volume in Aging Humans,” 
Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medicine Sciences
61, no. 11 (2006): 1166–70.

8
. C. Raji, K. Ericson, O. Lopez, J. Becker, O. Carmichael, H. M. Gach, P. Thompson, W. Longstreth, and L. Kuller, “Energy Expenditure Is Associated with Gray Matter Structure in Normal Cognition, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer’s Dementia,” paper presented to the Radiological Society of North America on November 26, 2012.

9
. E. Bullitt, F. N. Rahman, J. K. Smith, E. Kim, D. Zeng, L. M. Katz, and B. L. Marks, “The Effect of Exercise on the Cerebral Vasculature of Healthy Aged Subjects as Visualized by MR Angiography,”
American Journal of Neuroradiology
30, no. 10 (2009): 1857–63.

10
. Stefan Schneider, Christopher D. Askew, Thomas Abel, Andreas Mierau, and Heiko K. Strüder, “Brain and Exercise: A First Approach Using Electrotomography,”
Medicine and Science in Sports Exercise
42, no. 3 (2010): 600–7.

11
. “Montreal Study: Sport Makes Middle-Aged People Smarter,” Université de Montréal Nouvelles, October 29, 2012, www.nouvelles.umontreal.ca/udem-newsnews/20121029-montreal-study-sport-makes-middle-aged-people-smarter.html.

12
. Frédéric N. Daussin, Joffrey Zoll, Elodie Ponsot, Stéphane P. Dufour, Stéphane Doutreleau, Evelyne Lonsdorfer, Renée Ventura-Clapier, Bertrand Mettauer, François Piquard, Bernard Geny, and Ruddy Richard, “Training at High Exercise Intensity Promotes Qualitative Adaptations of Mitochondrial Function in Human Skeletal Muscle,”
Journal of Applied Physiology 
104, no. 5 (2008): 1436–41.

13
. J. Z. Willey, Y. P. Moon, M. C. Paik, M. Yoshita, C. DeCarli, R. L. Sacco, M. S. Elkind, and C. B. Wright, “Lower Prevalence of Silent Brain Infarcts in the Physically Active: The Northern Manhattan Study,”
Neurology
 76, no. 24 (2011): 2112–18.

Chapter 5: Your Recipe for a Bigger Brain

1
. M. L. Corrêa Leite, A. Nicolosi, S. Cristina, W. A. Hauser, and G. Nappi, “Nutrition and Cognitive Deficit in the Elderly: A Population Study,”
European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
 55, no. 12 (2001): 1053–58.

2
. Nikolaos Scarmeas, Yaakov Stern, Richard Mayeux, Jennifer J. Manly, Nicole Schupf, and Jose A. Luchsinger, “Mediterranean Diet and Mild Cognitive Impairment,”
Archives of Neurology
 66, no. 2 (2009): 216–25.

3
. Nikolaos Scarmeas, Jose A. Luchsinger, Nicole Schupf, Adam M. Brickman, Stephanie Cosentino, Ming X. Tang, and Yaakov Stern, “Physical Activity, Diet, and Risk of Alzheimer Disease,”
Journal of the American Medical Association
302, no. 6 (2009): 627–37.