Amid the twenty-first century's fast-moving, high-tech times, our world is shrinking: a quick click of a mouse can connect us instantly with people and cultures across the globe. Our information- rich age, spiced with the splendor and squalor of the Internet, offers a glut of fact, theory, and data covering everything from the mysteries of far-flung galaxies to the more mundane intricacies of life on earth.
With so much technology and information, it might seem there are few frontiers left to explore. Yet unexplored, wondrous terrain still does exist, according to Paul D. Nussbaum, our Guest Editor for this issue of Generations: "The human brain remains a mystery and an untapped source of energy. I believe it to be perhaps the last and greatest frontier for our personal discovery."
Nussbaum, a clinical neuropsychologist who lives and works in Pennsylvania, is an adjunct professor in neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. With more than twenty-five years of experience caring for older persons suffering from dementia and related disorders, Dr. Nussbaum is an expert in neuroanatomy and human behavior, and has published numerous peerreviewed articles, books, and chapters on these topics. "The greatest sense of accomplishment I experience in my career is the direct interaction I have with people when I teach about the human brain and what we know about shaping it for health," he says.
"The Generations readership should find this issue on brain health important for the same reasons it is important to everyone. The single greatest, most magnificent, and complicated miracle ever designed sits within our own skulls-the human brain. It is vital that everyone take some time to learn about their brain," says Nussbaum.
He believes that once people understand brain basics, they can begin to appreciate how it functions and understand how to ensure better brain health. Nussbaum has assembled for this issue an eminent group of authors who have contributed knowledge and expertise on an array of topics-from the business and ethics of brain fitness to late-life cognitive disorders to proper nutrition for the aging brain.
Nussbaum endeavors to take the research and neuroscience to the general public so everyone can benefit from the latest findings and foster practical applications. He delivered the 2002 MindAlert Lecture ("Brain Health from One to One Hundred") at the Second Joint Conference of the National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging (ASA), and has also presented his thoughts on learning and brain health to the United Nations. In 2007, ASA honored him with the Gloria Cavanaugh Award for Excellence in Training and Education. "Brain health is an area I have been particularly focused on for the past decade or more. This is a very popular topic of study for the clinical scientist and a major area of interest for the general public," he says.
Nussbaum reports that some of the major developments in brain health include recent findings from neuroscience, such as human neurogenesis in the hippocampus (1998), and the reintroduction of the concept of neural plasticity. He is most engaged with the idea of "brain reserve"-a product of neural plasticity that appears to enable people to delay the onset of neurodegenerative diseases. This is important, Nussbaum says, because we have no cures or preventions for such diseases.
Dr. Nussbaum would like to see the United States make brain health a priority-to increase funding not only for clinical research into disease treatment, but also to focus on making policy supporting disease prevention and health promotion. Nussbaum has created what he calls "a proactive brain health lifestyle"-strategies that everyone can learn and apply with family members and clients, patients, or employees (for more information on the brain health lifestyle, visit www. paulnussbaum.com). Such a proactive approach can "help people to maintain access to their life story-the most precious gift we have-for as long as possible."
Nussbaum's goals are to continue to refine his message, based on the latest brain research, and to communicate it to a wider audience. "My field of neuropsychology can become a larger player in the area of brain health because it is well-positioned to promote clinical research, apply scientific findings to policy and for the general public, and help to steer clinical research from a lifestyle and behavioral perspective," he says.
"I hope future explorations into the power of the brain will unlock a potential for the highest forms of mental connectivity, intrapersonal healing, and a heightened consciousness that will redefine human civilization."
-Alison Hood
[Sidebar]
'The human brain remains a mystery and an untapped source of energy. I believe it to be perhaps the last and greatest frontier for our personal discovery.'
PAUL D. NUSSBAUM
'It is vital that everyone take some time to learn about their brain.'
The field of neuropsychology can become a larger player in the area of brain health.
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