It’s common knowledge that a proper exercise regimen can do wonders for the body. Only recently, however, have psychologists and gerontologists aggressively applied the same principle to the brain.

Among people who work with older adults, the concept of “cognitive fitness” has become a buzz phrase to describe activities that stimulate areas of the brain and help improve memory. Proponents of brain-fitness exercises say such mental conditioning can help prevent or delay memory loss and the onset of other age-related cognitive disorders.

“The brain is the central processor of the body, and most people don’t do much to keep it as fit as possible,” says Patti Celori, executive director of the New England Cognitive Center. The NECC runs a program to work with older adults to improve cognition. Its activities include computer programs designed to stimulate specific areas of the brain and the replication of geometric designs with pegs and rubber bands. Similar programs include Maintain Your Brain, initiated by the Alzheimer’s Association, and Mind Alert, run by the American Society on Aging.

But any hobby or activity that challenges the brain will help, say psychologists, including doing crossword puzzles and brain teasers, mental arithmetic and memory puzzles, or learning a new skill. One purpose of mental exercise is to reinforce the idea that “in aging, not everything is downhill,” explains Elkhonon Goldberg, a Manhattan neuropsychologist and author of The Wisdom Paradox, a book that examines how some people grow wiser with age.

This article appeared in Making Music Magazine (September/October 2006).