Along with other body functions, your brain activity slows down as you age. A seventy year old, even if she has a huge storehouse of knowledge, has zero chance of beating a 35 year old at Jeopardy, simply because she won’t be able to process the information in her brain and punch the buzzer quickly enough.
But is there a compensating factor for this slowing of processing speed in the brain? Do we gain wisdom as we age?’
This is a question that has intrigued philosophers throughout the ages. It’s a tricky question, because it’s hard to even define wisdom in a meaningful way.
Yet neuroscience can now begin to provide an answer to this question.
One of my valued patients sent me a link to an insightful article authored by Anil Ananthaswamy that was printed online in Nautilus. In addition to beginning to answer some of the age-old questions about wisdom, the article also forges a link between the activity of meditating and the type of wisdom that can sometimes visit us in our older years.
Dr. Lavine has been an innovator in the use of movement and touch to promote health since 1981. He practices in New York City and Princeton, NJ.
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