In winning the gold medal in the 200m butterfly in Beijing, Michael Phelps swam 7% faster than Mark Spitz did when he won the same event back in 1972. Phelps would have beaten Spitz by 14 meters. More remarkably, even the slowest swimmer in the 2008 Olympic butterfly final would have beaten Spitz by 5 seconds. This doesn't diminish Spitz's achievements. It just shows us how much more we know today about training for peak physical performance than we did in 1972.
In much the same way, we're now beginning to see serious attention given to brain training as a mechanism for reaching and maintaining optimal mental condition. As the data from academic research and field studies mounts, it becomes clear that brain training can provide a broad range of benefits - providing worthwhile results in everything from senior brain health to childhood education.
The following studies were published in just the last six months:
Scottish Study: Computer games boost math scores
Scottish educators had 600 children in 32 schools use a brain game for twenty minutes per day over a ten week period. Compared to children who hadn't been using the brain game, the students improved their scores on a post test by more than 50%.
New brain fitness program to fight memory loss
The Alzheimer's Association of Australia has endorsed brain training as a way to maintain good brain health into later life. In randomized, controlled trials, program participants more than doubled their processing speed and had gains of more than 10 years in standardized measures of memory and attention.
Demanding Memory Training Increases Intelligence
A study published in April, 2008, is revolutionizing the way we think about intelligence. With thirty minutes of rigorous daily training in working-memory, scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Bern demonstrated increases in fluid intelligence of more than 40% in less than 20 days.
The Many Benefits of Brain Training
The brain training revolution has been spurred by the findings of neuroscientists that far from being hard-wired and doomed to slow decline, the brain can grow new cells and, under the right conditions, is remarkably plastic - capable of forming entirely new structures and maps. Everything we do, think and feel involves electrical signals between neurons, and the pathways these signals take is far less predictable and fixed than once thought.
Academic Success & Learning
Far from being superfluous, brain training for children can increase the effectiveness of a standard educational environment. The children not only score better on tests, they learn better, too. And when it comes to SATs, ACTs, GREs, MCATs, etc. brain training should be right there alongside standard test prep as a way to help maximize scores.
When helping children with learning dysfunctions educators increasingly turn to brain exercise as a preferred alternative to accommodations. While an accommodation works around the disability, brain exercise tackles it head-on. By testing and strengthening the area of weakness under conditions that stimulate plasticity, the child can reduce or even eliminate the weakness altogether. (One of the pioneers in this approach, Barbara Arrowsmith Young, founder of the Arrowsmith School, has successfully helped hundreds of children do just that.)
Work and Personal Growth
Many of those engaged in careers that demand creative problem-solving and focused mental activity can use brain training as a way to stay sharp and in peak mental form. Unfortunately, the demands of the workplace tend to produce poor conditions for brain improvement - competing demands for focus and attention, staples of the modern workplace - disrupt the brain's ability to form memories and stimulate new cell growth. A brain training program that demands complete focus and trains core areas of cognitive function (working-memory, processing speed, and left-brain right-brain interaction) can make us significantly more effective and successful in the workplace.
An interesting outcome of the recent upsurge in brain training technologies has been the finding that brain exercise can lead to improvements in areas that at first seem unrelated - such as musical ability and self-esteem. But when we reflect on the brain's central role in any and all aspects of thinking (including feeling) this begins to make perfect sense. If we're already engaged in maximizing our potential through activities such as physical exercise, yoga, reading, therapy, mindfulness meditation, etc. adding a program of mental exercise makes perfect sense.
Maintaining Mental Health
The UCSF Memory and Aging Center reports that for each decade past the age of forty-five we lose about 10% of our cognitive capacity. Joe Verghese, M.D. (New England Journal of Medicine, volume=348, issue=25, 2003) found that people can reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's symptoms by 64% by adding a brain exercise to their weekly schedule. He also showed that people who engage in brain exercise four times a week have a 47% lower risk of dementia than those who do so just once a week. Senior centers around the country have begun to introduce brain training programs. But clearly if we want to avoid mental decline we should begin to engage in regular mental exercise much sooner, while we're in our thirties or early forties.
And finally, a study conducted by UT Southwestern Medical Center demonstrated that anti-depressants are much more effective when the brain grows new nerve cells in the dentate gyrus. Anti-depressants stimulate this growth, as does training of working-memory. And when we consider that stress, a major contributor to depression, inhibits brain cell growth we begin to see the intriguing promise of brain training as an effective tool in ensuring our mental well-being.
In much the same way, we're now beginning to see serious attention given to brain training as a mechanism for reaching and maintaining optimal mental condition. As the data from academic research and field studies mounts, it becomes clear that brain training can provide a broad range of benefits - providing worthwhile results in everything from senior brain health to childhood education.
The following studies were published in just the last six months:
Scottish Study: Computer games boost math scores
Scottish educators had 600 children in 32 schools use a brain game for twenty minutes per day over a ten week period. Compared to children who hadn't been using the brain game, the students improved their scores on a post test by more than 50%.
New brain fitness program to fight memory loss
The Alzheimer's Association of Australia has endorsed brain training as a way to maintain good brain health into later life. In randomized, controlled trials, program participants more than doubled their processing speed and had gains of more than 10 years in standardized measures of memory and attention.
Demanding Memory Training Increases Intelligence
A study published in April, 2008, is revolutionizing the way we think about intelligence. With thirty minutes of rigorous daily training in working-memory, scientists from the Universities of Michigan and Bern demonstrated increases in fluid intelligence of more than 40% in less than 20 days.
The Many Benefits of Brain Training
The brain training revolution has been spurred by the findings of neuroscientists that far from being hard-wired and doomed to slow decline, the brain can grow new cells and, under the right conditions, is remarkably plastic - capable of forming entirely new structures and maps. Everything we do, think and feel involves electrical signals between neurons, and the pathways these signals take is far less predictable and fixed than once thought.
Academic Success & Learning
Far from being superfluous, brain training for children can increase the effectiveness of a standard educational environment. The children not only score better on tests, they learn better, too. And when it comes to SATs, ACTs, GREs, MCATs, etc. brain training should be right there alongside standard test prep as a way to help maximize scores.
When helping children with learning dysfunctions educators increasingly turn to brain exercise as a preferred alternative to accommodations. While an accommodation works around the disability, brain exercise tackles it head-on. By testing and strengthening the area of weakness under conditions that stimulate plasticity, the child can reduce or even eliminate the weakness altogether. (One of the pioneers in this approach, Barbara Arrowsmith Young, founder of the Arrowsmith School, has successfully helped hundreds of children do just that.)
Work and Personal Growth
Many of those engaged in careers that demand creative problem-solving and focused mental activity can use brain training as a way to stay sharp and in peak mental form. Unfortunately, the demands of the workplace tend to produce poor conditions for brain improvement - competing demands for focus and attention, staples of the modern workplace - disrupt the brain's ability to form memories and stimulate new cell growth. A brain training program that demands complete focus and trains core areas of cognitive function (working-memory, processing speed, and left-brain right-brain interaction) can make us significantly more effective and successful in the workplace.
An interesting outcome of the recent upsurge in brain training technologies has been the finding that brain exercise can lead to improvements in areas that at first seem unrelated - such as musical ability and self-esteem. But when we reflect on the brain's central role in any and all aspects of thinking (including feeling) this begins to make perfect sense. If we're already engaged in maximizing our potential through activities such as physical exercise, yoga, reading, therapy, mindfulness meditation, etc. adding a program of mental exercise makes perfect sense.
Maintaining Mental Health
The UCSF Memory and Aging Center reports that for each decade past the age of forty-five we lose about 10% of our cognitive capacity. Joe Verghese, M.D. (New England Journal of Medicine, volume=348, issue=25, 2003) found that people can reduce their risk of developing Alzheimer's symptoms by 64% by adding a brain exercise to their weekly schedule. He also showed that people who engage in brain exercise four times a week have a 47% lower risk of dementia than those who do so just once a week. Senior centers around the country have begun to introduce brain training programs. But clearly if we want to avoid mental decline we should begin to engage in regular mental exercise much sooner, while we're in our thirties or early forties.
And finally, a study conducted by UT Southwestern Medical Center demonstrated that anti-depressants are much more effective when the brain grows new nerve cells in the dentate gyrus. Anti-depressants stimulate this growth, as does training of working-memory. And when we consider that stress, a major contributor to depression, inhibits brain cell growth we begin to see the intriguing promise of brain training as an effective tool in ensuring our mental well-being.
About the Author:
Oxford-trained scientist, author, and technologist, Martin Walker is a member of The British Neuroscience Association, Learning and The Brain, and MENSA. His company Mind Evolve Software publishes free information on the field of neuroscience and brain training as well as effective and affordable brain training software under the brand name Mind Sparke.
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