Nov 5, 2007
Marian Diamond on the brain
By: Alvaro Fernandez
Quotes from a great article, Professor, 81, proves brain stays young:
- In 1960, Diamond became the first female faculty member in Cal’s science department, achieving full professorship in 1974. She still teaches anatomy with her 81st birthday two weeks away.
- Diamond, a professor of anatomy at UC Berkeley, determined that the brain can stay young through stimulation, which can be achieved through her five-point plan: diet, exercise, challenge, newness and tender loving care.
- Using her plan, how is she challenged?
- “Every student who sits in that chair,” she said, pointing across the desk in her fifth-floor office in the Life Sciences Building on campus. “They come in here asking questions, and you better have the answers.”
- What newness, then, is in her life?
- “I have grandchildren,” she said. “What could be better, deciding new things for them, to stimulate their brains.”
- She has four children, four grandchildren and a husband, Arnold Scheidel, who teaches anatomy at UCLA. They see each other on school weekends,
- Diamond feels her own brain growing.
Keep reading here.
Related resources
A previous post listing a number of her essays: Marian Diamond and the Brain Revolution
Her great book Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture Your Child’s Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence, by Berkeley’s Marian Diamond and Janet L. Hopson.
[…] Marian Diamond on the brain: leading neuroscientist Marian Diamond, now 81, shares her prescription for lifelong brain health- diet, exercise, challenge, newness and tender loving care. […]