NigG and
MPN11 (your #88 and #89),
...There was a programme on TV about dementia recently. They were stressing the importance of 'use it or lose it'... being chatty, your brain cells have been well-exercised all your life.
Interesting and remarkable!...
Stands to reason. I think your brain atrophies with disuse, like all the other organs of your body. Since getting on line in the summer of 2011, I'm sure I've benefited immensely in that respect. I have a theory (all right, a conjecture !), that if all who reach pensionable age without having already joined the ranks of the "silver surfers" were provided with a basic computer (and compelled, as a condition of receiving their State pensions, to pass a simple course of instruction in how to use it), the incidence of late Alzheimers could be much reduced and a great deal of misery (and money) saved. And many "declining years" greatly enriched.
This could not solve the problem of the early onsets, admittedly, and in any case the requirement would die out in a generation or two, as all modern children appear to be born with a built-in degree in IT !
... things got better when he moved on from driving aeroplanes to controlling them ...that's when the brain-cells get some good exercise...
Many a true word is spoken in jest ! "Driving aeroplanes" is, basically, really just a physical skill, like playing a piano or riding a bike. You learn it, it becomes automatic and "you never forget ". Some people take to it like a duck to water, some will never be able to do it, but most can do so (given time). Of course it involves a great deal of brainwork, but that is incidental to the core physical control of an aircraft.
As for ATC, it may not exactly be "a high-speed three-dimensional game of chess", but you need your wits about you all the time.
(Tongue in cheek),
Danny.