Acquire information and learn as much as possible. Learning new material allows the brain to create new neural pathways; these pathways interconnect and improve an individual's cognitive reserve, and the more your neural pathways interconnect, the easier you will find it to respond to external stimuli. In short, the more you wire your brain to acquire new data, the easier it becomes to learn new things. It is also important to diversify the subject matter that you study.
An Albert Einstein School of Medicine study reported by the New England Journal of Medicine investigated different types of activities that may prevent dementia. The activity that, according to their research, played the biggest part in creating the new neural pathways that promote learning and increase the potential for learning is dancing. The study demonstrates the need to keep existing neural pathways open while at the same time generating new pathways. This allows us to "maintain the complexity of our neuronal synapses."
Some researchers believe that nutrition plays a major role in an individual's ability to learn. Eat foods that have antioxidants such as fruits, vegetables and whole grains; antioxidants protect your body's cells, including the brain cells. Reduce the amount of sugar in your diet; sugar creates fatigue and, after the initial sugar high, can leave you feeling lethargic. Eat breakfast, which improves concentration, mental performance, problem-solving abilities, mood and memory.
The act of meditating is a form of mental training. Meditating guides a person's brain to learn to release unimportant information and retain important data. A 2007 University of Wisconsin-Madison study reported that subjects who meditated showed a higher rate of success in attending to important information while showing an ability to ignore unimportant stimuli. An individual's ability to acquire knowledge -- the criteria that the IQ test measures -- increases with heightened concentration skills.