More on the brain and aging.  Since The New York Timesarticle by Barbara Strauch* that I referenced recently is only accessible to subscribers, I went to the Pomona College Aging and Cognition website to supplement what I read in the Times article about the work of researcher Deborah H. Burke.

Much of Burke’s research centers on the complaint many of us have that the name of someone we just encountered in the grocery store, the title of that great book we read two years ago, or the actor who won an Academy Award last year would not come to mind when we needed it. Burke calls these tip of tongue experiences “TOTs” and makes us all feel better by saying that they begin as early as age 40 and that they can be minimized.  “This research and our model of TOTs predict that daily activities that increase language production should mitigate word-finding failures like TOTs. Using language in ordinary activities like socializing or in games like Scrabble may help keep words accessible and off the tip of the tongue!”

The Aging and Cognition website goes on to say, “We also are interested in why some cognitive processes are well maintained in old age. Semantic processes (for example, vocabulary size and word knowledge) increase during adulthood and semantic processes essential for language comprehension show little difference in young and older adults… “…we found that both young and older adults rated older adults’ discourse about experiences such as a vacation as more interesting and informative and of higher quality than young adults’ discourse.”

So there you have it, two perfect interventions to keep our brains working well:  1) get out the Scrabble board and invite some friends over to socialize and play, and 2)  take a vacation and come home ready to talk about it (but not all evening and please leave the eight hours of video at home).

*Strauch also wrote The Secret Life of the Grownup Brain.