OLDER BRAINS, NEW CONNECTIONS: A CONVERSATION WITH MARIAN DIAMOND AT 73

2000 (30 min) $125.   ISBN: 1-891340-70-0       [Available with Spanish Subtitles]

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Maintaining a healthy brain is key to positive aging.  A pioneer in studying the effects of experience on brain development, Dr. Diamond has a lot to say about maintaining intellectual function in old age, her own and that of other elders.   In a very winning way, she offers audiences an overview of the neuroscience of intellectual functioning and discusses the risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease.  She offers practical advice about maintaining brain function after the age of retirement.

Film content:

            Variation of aging for different systems of the body

            Brief biography of Dr. Diamond, especially relating to the groundbreaking discovery that the experience of enriched environments results in greater neural activity in rats of all ages

            Aging does not necessarily result in significant loss of neural connections

            Factors necessary for brain health

            Nuns’ Study of aging

            Brief overview of the regions of the brain and the way neurons act to convey messages between them

                        Synapses

                        Dendrites         

                        Glial cells

            Alzheimer’s and genetic propensities

            The immune function of the brain

Visuals:

            Largely a conversation with the viewers, the film also has animations and live action portions

                        Animations of webs of neurons illustrating their functioning

                        Brain models of regions of the brain

                        Dr. Diamond’s lab including an autopsied brain

                        Rats in enriched and impoverished environments

                        Elders shown participating in brain-enriching activities

Consultant:

Marian Diamond, Ph.D., continues to teach neurophysiology at the University of California, Berkeley.  The research she did in collaboration with David Kresh, Ed Bennett, and Mark Rosenzweig changed the way scientists conceived of the brain: their research showed that experience could change the physical structure of the brain.  She has written many papers and books on neuroscience topics including, with her husband, the ever popular The Human Brain Coloring Book, basic to neuroscience studies.  Very active in her own older years, Dr. Diamond has taken on supporting and studying the effects of enriching the learning of orphans in a Cambodian institution. 

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