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.

Quick post for my UC-Berkeley OLLI students: here are the links I promised.

- Collection of 50 Brain Teasers.

- Neuroscience Interview Series including in-depth notes of interviews with leading scientists and practitioners.

- Build Your Cognitive Reserve-Yaakov Stern: which talks about the Cognitive Reserve and Alzheimer’s symptoms, and includes a great clip on the famous “nun study”.

- Articles and Papers: a collection of good reading materials.

- Books: the selection of books we discussed.

- YouTube Channel: some clips you will enjoy to refresh your class memories.

Enjoy!

 

We hope you are enjoying the growing coverage of Brain Fitness as much as we are. Below you have the Brain Fitness Newsletter we sent a few days ago-you can subscribe to this monthly email update in the box on the right hand side.

In this post, we will briefly cover:

I. Press: see what CBS and Time Magazine are talking about. SharpBrains was introduced in the Birmingham News, Chicago Tribune and in a quick note carried by the American Psychological Association news service.

II. Events: we are outreach partners for the Learning & the Brain conference, which will gather neuroscientists and educators, and for the Dana Foundation’s Brain Awareness Week.

III. Program Reviews: The Wall Street Journal reviewed six different programs for brain exercise and aging, and the one we offer is one of the two winners. A college-level counseling center starts offering our stress management one. And we interview a Notre Dame scientist who has conducted a replication study for the working memory training program for kids with ADD/ ADHD.

IV. New Offerings: we have started to offer two information packages that can be very useful for people who want to better understand this field before they commit to any particular program: learn more about our Brain Fitness 101 guide and Exercise Your Brain DVD.

V. Website and Blog Summary: we revamped our home page and have had a very busy month writing many good articles. We also hosted two “Blog Carnivals”- don’t you want to know what that means?
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