“ … As you move toward late middle age, you start to worry: is gossip enough to keep me cerebrally spry? The awful spectre of dementia looms over the horizon. How to stave it off? Ideas! The more educated you are, the better your odds of beating dementia even as you get older … This is what science seems to tell us. It’s called the ‘cognitive reserve’ hypothesis: the more numerous and complicated the neural connections in your brain, the more robustly it resists the erosion of time. …”
Jim Holt The Oldie February 2017
In Our Element
How better to ensure mental robustness than by getting together with stimulating people at regular intervals live and on-line via the Silververve Network? With Silververve we can finally be in our element:
“ Silver” precious metal, with the highest electrical conductivity of any metal. Synonyms include bright, lustrous, resplendent and sterling.
“Verve” vivaciousness; liveliness.
Silververve Network
“Keeping active can increase your brain power”. Brain power peaks in the silver set 2010
It used to be thought that mental decline started around the end of the third decade. But new neuroscience demonstrates that not only does keeping mentally and physically active keep us spry, it can actually increase our brainpower.
Silververve is an evolving live and on-line network of lively mature people who are retired, approaching retirement or under-employed and who want to be “re-tyred” so they can get some new traction in life by finding stimulating ways of sharing their knowledge, skills and experiences. It is definitely not for the retiring!
Revaluing Mature Knowledge
“…unlike conventional assets, knowledge grows when it is shared.” Dr Karl-Erik Sveiby
In an age awash with data and information Silververve seeks to revalue the worth of mature knowledge and wisdom to organisations and the wider community. This is based on new neuroscience which shows that older people who are mentally, physically and socially active are able to retain and tap an undervalued cognitive reserve of highly relevant skills and knowledge.
Neural Silver Lining
“When your tyres are flat…it’s Hi-Ho Silver Lining… .Anything you want is yours now…”
Hi Ho Silver Lining -Jeff Beck 1967–
Expert knowledge, born of experience, is stored in brain cells known as dendritic spines. These are a metaphorical silver lining which protects against ageing. Despite slower brain speed, older people are less affected by hormonal swings and solve problems more efficiently, drawing on cognitive templates of how they resolved past problems.
Lyall Lukey– Liveserver, Silververve
Silververve: A new lease of life for mature brains 