Learning is not just for the young...New York Times article by Oliver Sacks.

I just read one of the most hopeful and inspiring articles on the New York Times Opinion Pages. The author, Oliver Sacks, called his op-ed piece "This Year Change Your Mind".  Sacks is a renowned neuroscientist and author of The Minds Eye.  The premise is that our mind continues to grow and develop new pathways for learning even as we grow older.  Please, please read it...it is not often we see something like this.  For example:

Neuroplasticity — the brain’s capacity to create new pathways — is a crucial part of recovery for anyone who loses a sense or a cognitive or motor ability. But it can also be part of everyday life for all of us. While it is often true that learning is easier in childhood, neuroscientists now know that the brain does not stop growing, even in our later years. Every time we practice an old skill or learn a new one, existing neural connections are strengthened and, over time, neurons create more connections to other neurons. Even new nerve cells can be generated.

It is very inspiring to think that this New Year and every year in the future could find each of us learning a NEW skill while encouraging our brain to remain supple and useful.  So get out that bucket list or dream list and see what it is you would like to learn in 2011 and beyond.  It is possible...Oliver Sacks and the New York Time said so.

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Thank you Pia for the idea.

Related articles

• What happened when Oliver Sacks started to hallucinate [Neuroscience] (io9.com)
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• Oliver Sacks On His Burning Love Of 'Fire' (npr.org)