Welcome to Untangle. I'm Patricia Carpice. Today I sit down with neurologist and neuroscientist Dr. Magid Fatoui to unpack the science of neuroplasticity. The brain's remarkable ability to change, rewire, and grow at any age. He's adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins and author of the book

The Invincible Brain, the clinically proven plan to age-proof your brain and stay sharp for life.

We discuss many things related to this, from building new neural connections to strengthening memory-related

regions of the brain, to what he calls the five pillars of brain health, fitness, sleep,

nutrition, mindset, and brain training. Dr. Patui explains why age-related cognitive decline

and even Alzheimer's isn't as inevitable as we've been led to believe.

It's fascinating stuff. I hope you enjoy it. Now, here's Dr. Pituy.

Dr. Fatoui, it is great to have you on Untangle today. Thanks for being with us.

It's my pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

So we're going to talk about the brain today, which is your wonderful expertise.

But I just want to start by understanding what initially inspired you first to go into neurology

and then to study the brain as deeply as you have.

I became interested in the brain when I was a kid.

My father used to tell me about how fascinating the brain is.

And he told me the story of a young girl who was born without arms.

And she had learned to paint, to cook,

to even play ping pong. And he said, see, our brain has this amazing ability to do anything.

Could you play ping pong with your toes or paint? And I said, no, but you can. And I realized that our brain has such an immense

capacity. So when I started college, I tried to be open-minded as to what I would go into, but I loved

psychology and physiology. And that's why I decided to do my PhD neuroscience and then go on to

medical school and do neurology residency. And every day

when I studied the brain, I loved it. Every day I read an article. I thought it was fascinating.

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