October 30, 2024

Build Adaptability, Resilience and Creativity by Stimulating Neuroplasticity (and Making Connections)

About Brookdale Senior Living

Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

Brookdale professional speaking with resident

Neuroplasticity might not be a word that pops up in your everyday conversations, but the concept and its application is especially relevant in the lives of your senior patients. Psychology Today defines neuroplasticity as “the brain’s capacity to continue growing and evolving in response to life experiences. . . . the ability for the brain to adapt or change over time, by creating new neurons and building new networks.” Other definitions mention the nervous system’s ability to respond to internal or external stimuli “by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections.”

At its core, neuroplasticity is about

making connections through new synapses
mental and behavioral flexibility by changing, reorganizing or growing neural networks
resilience, growth and development through continually challenging your mind and body to maintain high-level functioning or improved health and well-being

The brain changes most rapidly in childhood, but more recent studies reveal that the brain continues to develop throughout life and is capable of producing new neurons throughout adult life. This insight offers exciting opportunities for individuals to take steps to have a measurable and meaningful positive impact on their brain structure and function well into their senior years.

Prevention, Rehabilitation and Development

As people age, cognitive abilities — like physical abilities — tend to change. Seniors may experience slower recall of words and names, a reduced ability to multitask or execute multistep processes, and a decreased attention span. But by strengthening their neuroplasticity, individuals can help to mitigate these challenges of the aging brain:

Improved neuroplasticity can be preventive, helping to reduce the likelihood that a person will develop dementia or other mental health disorders.
It can be rehabilitative, helping the brain and the person heal from a stroke, traumatic brain injury or other damage.
And it can be developmental, helping to build new skills and capabilities.

New Abilities and Ways of Thinking

Humans are quite capable of developing new abilities and ways of thinking throughout their lives, especially if they are committed to pursuing lifelong learning and growth. Neuroplasticity can be positive or negative. Positive neuroplasticity occurs when a person or an animal is exposed to a more complex and novel environmental pressure and adapts by learning to negotiate the environment better. Negative neuroplasticity occurs when there is little need to adapt, so neuronal connections atrophy. In other words, fostering the promotion of synaptic connectivity through any of a variety of means stimulates positive cognitive and mental health and helps reduce the impact of negative stimuli — a worthwhile pursuit at any stage of life.

Psychology Today suggests a variety of nonpharmacological methods and environments that can help stimulate neuroplasticity:

Positive social interactions
Novel activities
Play
Stimulating environments
Practicing and repeating positive activities
Mental training strategies such as mindfulness meditation
Developing a sense of purpose

To illustrate how powerful the “windows of plasticity” are in the brain, aerobic exercise helps the brain as much as the heart through the release of the substance known as brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF). This stimulates the growth of new synaptic connections, bolstering the strength of signals transmitted from neuron to neuron. In a recent blog post we discussed the idea that it’s never too late to discover new passions and purpose in life — and that such discovery can bring real benefits. Neuroplasticity makes this possible. These pursuits, in turn, can help increase an individual’s neuroplasticity.

Making Connections and Shaping a New Future

At Brookdale Senior Living, we take a purposeful and comprehensive approach to providing residents with care in partnership with their providers and families by surrounding our residents with programs, environments and support to help address clinical and social needs. We cultivate growth opportunities for residents in multiple ways, from physical activities to social engagement, helping to foster positive synaptic connections.

To learn more about how you can help your patients boost their neuroplasticity in a Brookdale Senior Living community, connect with us today.

Inside Brookdale Communities

See what’s happening on our community Instagram pages

Chat Now