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How to Keep Your Brain Young | Dr. Tommy Wood & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips12:16Added Aug 31, 2026

Dr. Tommy Wood and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the essential role of novelty and cognitive challenge in maintaining brain health, highlighting how specific interventions like processing speed training and learning complex, multi-modal skills can preserve executive function and counteract the cognitive decline that typically accelerates after age 60.

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Contributed by 刘嘉琪

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  1. Keeping Your Brain Young

  2. 00:00If you were to tell people, look, you
  3. 00:04want to keep your brain as young as it
  4. 00:07can possibly be relative to your
  5. 00:08chronological age,
  6. 00:10you should what?
  7. 00:12Like it it so this is a general brain
  8. 00:14health question, but really I'm
  9. 00:16specifically asking about plasticity and
  10. 00:18let's make it multiple choice and then
  11. 00:20you can add things to it. Okay, you
  12. 00:21[clears throat] should exercise. So it
  13. 00:23can be multiple things and then we'll
  14. 00:24talk about which types of exercise you
  15. 00:26should continue to do. the things that
  16. 00:28you already know how to do.
  17. 00:30Yeah.
  18. 00:30And then third option um not mutually
  19. 00:33exclusive with the others of course is
  20. 00:35uh you should try to do new things that
  21. 00:37you can't already do.
  22. 00:39And I I still toil with this when I look
  23. 00:41at the literature on neuroplasticity and
  24. 00:42aging,
  25. 00:44right? Like [snorts] yes, use it or lose
  26. 00:46it is true,
  27. 00:48but we're also told that novelty and
  28. 00:50trying things that we're not good at is
  29. 00:52an essential component of building out
  30. 00:54brain circuits, continuing to make them
  31. 00:57function better as we get older. So, how
  32. 00:58do you how do you think about all of
  33. 01:00that?
  34. 01:01I'll partly answer your last question
  35. 01:04and then maybe give a framework for how
  36. 01:06I think about it. So when you look at a
  37. 01:12combination of epidemiological studies
  38. 01:13and intervention studies in older
  39. 01:15adults, everything about maintaining
  40. 01:17cognitive function later in life, you
  41. 01:19definitely see that those who continue
  42. 01:22to engage in hobbies and activities that
  43. 01:25are cognitively engaging or cognitively
  44. 01:27demanding and that can be lectures, that
  45. 01:30can be um volunteering, that can be you
  46. 01:33know reading crosswords, that kind of
  47. 01:35stuff. Those individuals tend to either
  48. 01:38have slowed rates of decline or better
  49. 01:40maintenance of function over time and or
  50. 01:42lower rates of dementia. That's of
  51. 01:44course observational, right? But that's
  52. 01:47usually people continuing to engage in
  53. 01:49the things that you know they've already
  54. 01:51been doing, right?
  55. 01:52So they're holding on to what they've
  56. 01:53got.
  57. 01:54Holding on to what they've got by
  58. 01:55continuing to do that.

  59. Benefits Of Novel Activities

  60. 01:56Okay. Now, of course, it could partly be
  61. 01:59reverse causation because if you're
  62. 02:01maintaining function, then you will
  63. 02:02you're more likely to continue to do the
  64. 02:04things that that you enjoy doing, right?
  65. 02:06So, there's probably it probably goes in
  66. 02:07both both directions. However, there's
  67. 02:11an increasing body of literature that
  68. 02:13shows that by engaging older adults in
  69. 02:16novel cognitive activities, you see
  70. 02:19improvements in function. So that can be
  71. 02:21language learning. Uh that can be uh
  72. 02:23complex like cognitive movement or
  73. 02:26exercise. You see the same things with
  74. 02:28um like musical training like people
  75. 02:30learning a new musical instrument or
  76. 02:31learning um musical theory trying to
  77. 02:33identify different patterns in music.
  78. 02:35And you see in randomized control trials
  79. 02:38improvements particularly in executive
  80. 02:40function that seems to be most common
  81. 02:41across those different interventions.
  82. 02:43But you're seeing um improvements in
  83. 02:46cognitive function with novel cognitive
  84. 02:48stimuli. Uh there's a lot of uh recent
  85. 02:50trials that have also used types of
  86. 02:53brain training um things like the
  87. 02:55pointer trial that was here in the US
  88. 02:56maintain your brain which was a massive
  89. 02:59online study done in Australia recently
  90. 03:01and that's sort of broad cognitive
  91. 03:05training with like an online cognitive
  92. 03:06training platform. So again it's it's a
  93. 03:08new uh or novel um intervention or
  94. 03:12exposure that seems to provide a
  95. 03:15stimulus that improves function. So I
  96. 03:17think both can be or do seem to be
  97. 03:19important. Can I ask what
  98. 03:21[clears throat]
  99. 03:21um for an example of maybe one or two of
  100. 03:24the things that were in that large scale
  101. 03:26trial from Australia like just at a at a
  102. 03:28very top contour level um older adults
  103. 03:30meaning 65 and older um are doing what
  104. 03:34the maintain your brain uh study was
  105. 03:36actually it was um sort of midlife kind
  106. 03:39of uh 50s and 50s and 60s mainly and
  107. 03:43they actually had interventions across
  108. 03:45four different domains based on risk
  109. 03:47factors within that given individual. So
  110. 03:49they had uh dietary a dietary
  111. 03:51intervention, they had physical
  112. 03:52activity, they had um cognitive
  113. 03:55behavioral therapy for those who had um
  114. 03:58you know some potentially some mental
  115. 04:00health um concerns and then they had uh
  116. 04:03online brain training. Uh there was
  117. 04:05something similar done in the pointer
  118. 04:07trial uh which was in older adults now
  119. 04:0960s and 70s that was done here in the US
  120. 04:12that was a replication of an older trial
  121. 04:14called the finger trial that was done in
  122. 04:15Finland but what those guys did was
  123. 04:17something very similar. So it's uh diet,

  124. Multi-Domain Cognitive Health Trials

  125. 04:20exercise, uh monitoring and and treating
  126. 04:22uh cardiovascular risk factors and then
  127. 04:25brain training. So what the brain
  128. 04:27training looks like um so the points
  129. 04:30trial is a good example. They did um
  130. 04:32they used a platform called Brain HQ
  131. 04:34which is an HQ
  132. 04:35Brain HQ um which was uh developed based
  133. 04:38on the work of Mike Mzinich um who's you
  134. 04:41know like one of the godfathers of
  135. 04:43learning and neuroplasticity right um
  136. 04:46and they
  137. 04:48do various tasks primarily focused on
  138. 04:52developing and maintaining processing
  139. 04:54speed. Um, some of that evidence goes
  140. 04:56all the way back to an older trial
  141. 04:59called active that was done in the US in
  142. 05:01the '90s. It was still the biggest ever
  143. 05:04trial of like pure cognitive brain
  144. 05:06training again in older adults. So 60s
  145. 05:09and 70s. They had three different um
  146. 05:12training groups. The uh and then a
  147. 05:15control group. Uh the training groups
  148. 05:17did memory training and kind of like you
  149. 05:19know pneumonics, memory palaces, that
  150. 05:21kind of stuff to help them remember.
  151. 05:23There was reasoning training which is
  152. 05:24kind of like looking looking for
  153. 05:26patterns in numbers and letters. And
  154. 05:27then there was processing speed training
  155. 05:29where in this example it's visual
  156. 05:31processing speed. So things flash up on
  157. 05:33a screen in increasingly small uh
  158. 05:37increments. So could be hundreds of
  159. 05:38milliseconds. And as you get better at
  160. 05:41doing it, that time gets shorter and you
  161. 05:43have to remember what you saw and where
  162. 05:45you saw it on a screen. They just

  163. Processing Speed & Dementia Risk

  164. 05:47published a secondary analysis of the
  165. 05:49active trial that showed that um those
  166. 05:51who did processing speed training with
  167. 05:53uh booster sessions at one and three
  168. 05:55years had a significantly decreased risk
  169. 05:57of dementia 20 years later. Um and
  170. 05:59they've done some other studies showing
  171. 06:00that that kind of training improves
  172. 06:01co-allergic signaling in the forebrain
  173. 06:03um which we know is susceptible to um
  174. 06:06the processes of dementia. So in
  175. 06:09particular, it's this training uh to be
  176. 06:13able to improve either visual or
  177. 06:16auditory processing speed, which is not
  178. 06:18something that you know, as you get
  179. 06:19older, you tend to not do activities
  180. 06:22that require you to process information
  181. 06:23quickly. Like driving is probably the
  182. 06:25the main one, but you can do it in
  183. 06:28sports and music and and other
  184. 06:30scenarios, but if you're not doing those
  185. 06:32things, processing speed tends to drop
  186. 06:34off sometime around 60 years old. When
  187. 06:36you say uh well I say processing, you
  188. 06:39say [laughter] processing uh processing
  189. 06:41speed. Um are you talking about reaction
  190. 06:43time, improving reaction time or pushing
  191. 06:45people to um stay at the edge of of
  192. 06:48reaction time? And when I say stay at
  193. 06:49the edge, I should clarify for people
  194. 06:51some task where if you go too fast, you
  195. 06:54make errors. If you go too slow, there's
  196. 06:56also a penalty
  197. 06:57in this scenario. And there are, you
  198. 06:59know, studies that look at these
  199. 07:00different functions over time. probably
  200. 07:03the biggest one looked at data that came
  201. 07:06from the implicit association test
  202. 07:08people might have heard of where you get
  203. 07:09um show these pictures of different
  204. 07:11things and depending on how quickly you
  205. 07:12respond it tells you something about
  206. 07:13like your implicit um you like your
  207. 07:16implicit thought processes. Um they took
  208. 07:18some of the data from that. Um this is

  209. Reaction Time Versus Processing Speed

  210. 07:21published in one of the nature journals
  211. 07:22a few years ago. And what they showed
  212. 07:24was that um you can separate out
  213. 07:27reaction time versus processing speed
  214. 07:29because reaction time is just is a is a
  215. 07:31very um just the basic of response to a
  216. 07:34visual stimulus whereas processing
  217. 07:35requires you is is based on how quickly
  218. 07:39you can process and remember the
  219. 07:40information that you're seeing. You
  220. 07:42actually think Yeah. So what they showed
  221. 07:45in this study was that reaction time
  222. 07:46kind of slowly decreases on average in a
  223. 07:48population of it was about 1.2 million
  224. 07:51people slowly decreases in sort of like
  225. 07:54from about our 30s and then and then
  226. 07:57maybe decreases even more once we get
  227. 07:59past about 60.
  228. 08:00Processing speed on average tended to be
  229. 08:03more stable until about 60 years old and
  230. 08:05then tends to drop off. So in what
  231. 08:07you're doing in these um training
  232. 08:09modalities is you're being shown
  233. 08:12information
  234. 08:14for a very short period of time and then
  235. 08:17having to remember what it was you saw
  236. 08:18and where you saw it. Um so requires you
  237. 08:20to actually think and you know remember
  238. 08:23process the information rather than just
  239. 08:24like responding to a stimulus.
  240. 08:27So for people that want to jump to the
  241. 08:29okay what do I do? Um
  242. 08:32can we conclude okay if you like
  243. 08:34crossword puzzles keep doing them but do
  244. 08:37really hard ones for you. If you like

  245. Choosing Effective Cognitive Challenges

  246. 08:39lifting weights, continue to challenge
  247. 08:42yourself with those. If you like to run,
  248. 08:45you know, push harder. Or should it be
  249. 08:47we shift domains? You like to lift and
  250. 08:50run, great. Start swimming again.
  251. 08:52Andrew, I'm telling myself, I used to I
  252. 08:54you know, I just noticed over time it's
  253. 08:56it's such a cliche of aging, right? Um
  254. 08:59that you one does tend to become more
  255. 09:01narrow, quote unquote, set in their
  256. 09:03ways. You like what you like, you don't
  257. 09:04want like what you don't. You get
  258. 09:06busier. Probably don't actually get
  259. 09:07busier, but you convince yourself, well
  260. 09:09I'll do I'm doing these things and I do
  261. 09:11plenty of them so but I'm not doing
  262. 09:14these other things. Or for those of us,
  263. 09:17I think this is everybody. If they
  264. 09:18really ask themselves an answer
  265. 09:21honestly, you'd love to hold on to your
  266. 09:23motor function and cognitive function as
  267. 09:24[clears throat] long as you can,
  268. 09:26maybe even improve it. Should we push
  269. 09:28ourselves to do something that's really
  270. 09:29far outside the box or maybe
  271. 09:32sort of current skill adjacent? So, I
  272. 09:34think of those three categories. What
  273. 09:36What do the data say? If you want the
  274. 09:39greatest effect for the minimum amount
  275. 09:40of [clears throat] time, assuming you're
  276. 09:41still going to do all the stuff you
  277. 09:42normally do, you're going to add
  278. 09:44something else.
  279. 09:45Should it be something really different,
  280. 09:46slightly different, or just push harder
  281. 09:48in the thing you do?
  282. 09:50I think it's going to depend a little
  283. 09:51bit on what it what it is the things
  284. 09:54that you currently do, right? So like
  285. 09:55crosswords are a good a good example.
  286. 09:57Even if you're doing hard ones, if you
  287. 10:00look at the work of people like uh
  288. 10:02Gloria Mark, the things like Crossword
  289. 10:05and Sudoku, they're less of like a true
  290. 10:07cognitive challenge, right? It's it's
  291. 10:10almost has more of like a meditation
  292. 10:12meditative like effect, right? Which can
  293. 10:14be a good thing, right? So you're
  294. 10:15focused but not challenged really. uh
  295. 10:18whereas if we're trying to build
  296. 10:21capacity, you need to spend some time
  297. 10:24doing something where you are both
  298. 10:25focused and challenged um cognitively.

  299. Learning Complex New Skills

  300. 10:28So that can come from um learning new
  301. 10:33skills be they motor, language, social
  302. 10:38um and ideally as broad as possible
  303. 10:41because you're going to get better like
  304. 10:46overall stimulus as well as kind of like
  305. 10:48broader potential for for transfer into
  306. 10:50other areas of of daily life. In
  307. 10:53reality, the narrowness of the response
  308. 10:55or the breadth of the response is
  309. 10:57proportional to the narrowness or the
  310. 10:59breadth of the stimulus, right? So, you
  311. 11:02could get really good at one very
  312. 11:04specific thing or you could try and
  313. 11:08learn a new skill that requires a that
  314. 11:12involves a wide variety of tasks. So,
  315. 11:13I'll give like like an example is
  316. 11:15learning a new ball sport, right? that
  317. 11:18is going to require multiple assets of
  318. 11:20motor skills, social skills. Um, it's
  319. 11:23going to include both visual and
  320. 11:25auditory processing that's going to get
  321. 11:28faster and faster and harder and harder
  322. 11:29the better you get. So, something like
  323. 11:31that
  324. 11:33uh creates a much broader stimulus um
  325. 11:36than you know if you get very good at
  326. 11:38one very specific brain training task on
  327. 11:41like one computer program, right? This
  328. 11:44is one of the main arguments against
  329. 11:47online or you know digital brain
  330. 11:49training is that you get very good at
  331. 11:51doing that one specific thing but it
  332. 11:52doesn't transfer over to other areas of
  333. 11:54your life. Whereas some of these broader
  334. 11:56more complex ultimately more human
  335. 11:59skills probably give us much broader
  336. 12:02transfer as well as you know you know
  337. 12:04because of the the multiple pathways or
  338. 12:06networks that are being activated.
  339. 12:14[music]