BRAIN TRAINING: 8 WAYS TO FLEX YOUR MOST IMPORTANT MUSCLE!
JUL 4, 2013
Learn a song, catch a ball... and talk to yourself! Here are 8 ways to improve concentration, memory and the overall health of your brain
Neuroscience’s great discovery of recent decades is this: the brain is much more “plastic” than previously assumed. Rather than achieving a fixed state at adulthood, it remains highly pliable throughout a lifetime. Even those suffering terrible neurological injuries have shown an amazing capacity to regain old cognitive abilities and develop new ones. It also means that we can all train our brain to get sharper.
1. Meditation
Often thought of as a great stress-reliever, daily meditation not only relaxes you, it gives your brain rigor and focus. Mindfulness, after all, is essentially the art of not being distracted; concentrating on only one thing at a time. A growing body of research finds our 21st century tendency to multitask slows the brain down. If you have a phone conversation while checking email or tweeting, chances are you won’t remember what you talked about or type anything very interesting. A recent study for the US National Academy of Sciences showed meditation was “consistent with decreased mind-wandering”. Many find the same kind of benefits from doing something slowly– setting aside time to cook or build something can help develop relaxed attentiveness.
2. Read something different (and a wee bit difficult)
Learning new things is the essential component of an active mind. Instead of reading the same kinds of authors and subjects, challenge yourself with books on topics which intrigue you, but which you know little about. Difficult things can be the most rewarding. Travis Proulx of the University of California says every time we encounter “meaning threat” – the unsettling feeling when something makes no sense – the brain works much harder to figure out the basics. But don’t read stuff you really don’t find interesting. If you don’t enjoy it, you won’t learn anything.
3. Catch a ball
There’s no avoiding how useful basic exercise can be. Dr Paul Nussbaum, neurologist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, says the brain demands 25 per cent of the blood, and exercising “keeps your blood pathways healthy and promotes new neuron growth”. Even if you are completely inept at sports, simple physical activities involving hand-eye co-ordination, such as throwing a ball in the air and catching it, strengthen the synapses (connections) between nerve cells in the brain.
4. Use it or lose it (and try your other hand)
The brain functions like a muscle – the more you use it, the stronger it gets. Unthinking routine is the enemy: it prevents brain cells making new neural connections. Neurologists advise that you contrive ways to step out of autopilot mode, even using your “wrong” hand to do simple tasks like teeth-brushing or unlocking the front door. Whichever hand you favor, using the other helps create connections between the two hemispheres in your brain. “If creativity is located in your
non-dominant hemisphere, then using your non-dominant hand may stimulate those cells,” says Jill Bolte Taylor, a neuroanatomist at Indiana University School of Medicine. Be warned, sluggish thought applies to your downtime too. Studies show when you watch unstimulating TV, your brain slows.
5. New faces, new places
Travel really does broaden the mind. The stimulation from the novelty of unfamiliar sights, sounds and smells along with solving the exciting puzzles of figuring out new routes and destinations, contribute to one of the brain’s most motivating wake-up calls. If travel abroad seems like a luxury, exploring a nearby town or finding an interesting walk is worthwhile. Getting to know the history of your area or local landscape enriches everything you see.
6. Don’t rely on Sudoku (but games are good)
Brain-training games amount to more than simply Sudoku or crosswords. Obsessive, long-standing crossword players show the same rate of cognitive decline as non-crossword players because any habit can slow your thinking. So learning new games, and the process of getting better at them, is when the really important stuff happens. Though the effectiveness of online brain-training games has been challenged in recent years, plenty of studies show they can do some limited good in keeping areas of the brain that deal with concentration and memory sharp.
7. The power of song
Memorizing favorite songs can be excellent exercise for the brain. Studies show music can unlock memories and encourage verbal fluency in people with advanced dementia in ways scientists don’t yet fully understand (search online for the nursing home documentary film Alive Inside if you want to see, and hear, something inspiring). Renowned neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks says musical activity “involves many parts of the brain – emotional, motor and cognitive areas, even more than we use for language”, which is why it is an effective way to remember or learn.
8. Talk to yourself
Muttering aloud to no one in particular can actually do some good—rather than being the first sign of madness! One University of Wisconsin study found talking to yourself can improve memory temporarily (people who talked to themselves had better luck finding lost things). “The idea is that saying words out loud helps activate properties more actively in the brain and efficiently organizes your brain to help process information,” says Professor Gary Lupyan.