Adults who learn new tricks such as juggling can improve the "wiring" of their brains, British scientists say.
The scientists said their research showed newly trained jugglers had better connectivity in parts of the brain involved in movements needed to catch the balls -- and the improvement lasted for weeks, even after they stopped practising juggling.
"We tend to think of the brain as being static, or even beginning to degenerate, once we reach adulthood," said Heidi Johansen-Berg of Oxford University, whose study was published in the journal Nature Neuroscience this week.
"In fact we find the structure of the brain is ripe for change. We've shown that it is possible for the brain to condition its own wiring system to operate more efficiently."
White matter consists of bundles of long nerve fibres that conduct electrical signals between nerve cells, while grey matter consists of nerve cell bodies where the processing and computation in the brain is done.
All the newly trained jugglers showed changes in white matter -- suggesting the benefit was down to time spent training and practising rather than ability, a result not found in previous studies.
