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It’s New to Them takes a peek at attention to novel situations. In particular, a group of older adults found cognitive benefits from developing the ability to attend to novel situations in theater training.

Now I’ve never really considered that another kind of training, physical exercise, contributes all that much to keeping the mind sharpened as we age. Sure, exercise and health go together, but exercise and smarts? But a recent Newsweek article linked exercise to boosted brain power. It seemed to say exercise makes kids smarter.

Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich weighs in on the subject from the plasticity perspective. Not so much that he rejects the idea out of hand, but he wants to be more specific on the links between the physical movements and their impacts on the brain:

OF COURSE being physically fit is of substantial importance for growing and sustaining our mental capacities, in kids, and throughout life! So, too, is the continous elaboration of our motor learning repertoires!

He goes on to elaborate:

BRAIN-LESS physical activity is much less useful for your cognitive fitness than physical activity that involves new experiences and continuous learning — that is, that drives continuous brain plasticity!

Now I don’t know if Merzenich knows anything about the Feldenkrais Method. From my (admittedly non-objective) viewpoint, it could really fit his requirements. After all unfamiliar movements done in unusual positions makes you notice and respond accordingly.

But mentioning Feldenkrais and exercise in the same breath doesn’t really work. Besides the fact that Moshe Feldenkrais himself often railed against most exercise as “work for donkeys,” Feldenkrais’ Method is just too different from most of our ideas about exercise to make it a non-starter in most gyms. It doesn’t look like exercise. Doesn’t fit into the usual categories of exercise you find at the typical gym. It’s not aerobic, doesn’t involve strength training, or stretching.

Here’s how it might fit, though. According to Larry Goldfarb, there’s a fourth category in the physical education world — coordination. And Feldenkrais excels in helping to set up situations where we can learn a lot more about how we can coordinate ourselves. You can hit a tennis ball with all the strength, stamina and flexibility you can muster, but you’re not likely to play a competent game with an uncoordinated swing.

It takes learning for that to happen, or as Merzenich puts it, “new experiences and continuous learning … that drives continuous brain plasticity!”

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