Tools

Food Combinations Sharpen Mental Focus

One technique for improving your brain and mind is tuning your diet.   There have been many studies making claims about how certain nutrients impact cognitive performance.  Dietary techniques – eating specific foods, food combinations, avoiding foods and the use of supplements – will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain blog.

For example, check-out this AARP-endorsed 3-minute video outlining tips for eating in a brain smart way.  Here is the basic claim:

“Want to be more mentally alert? The right fruit and vegetable combinations can help you think more clearly —especially if those combos are raw, with their nutrients intact, says AARP health and fitness ambassador Martina Navratilova in this video.”

I like this video because it offers simple but clinically supported ideas for making simple substitutions in your diet.  For example, snacking on pumpkin seeds and using dark leafy vegetables in your salad.   Making significant dietary changes is hard. We have a much better chance with simple additions or substitutions.

Audio Drugs for Your Brain?

You can alter your brainwaves by playing sounds of slightly different frequency in each ear.   Under the proper circumstances your brain stem will reconcile the difference by creating a rhythmic pulsing sound called a binaural beat. This is something you can actually hear but it is not really there.   Your brainwaves may change in response to this auditory hallucination.

There have been many claims made about the effects of binaural beats from reducing anxiety to improving creativity and even producing drug-like feelings of happiness or euphoria.  The hope that we can engineer a binaural beat experience, much like a drug, to create a specific brain boosting effect is very exciting.  The idea of an audio or digital drug has caught on and there is even one company, i-Doser Labs, that markets  binaural beats by the dose.  You can try free doses HERE for improving energy, mental focus, lucid dreaming or even building a superbrain.

The question is, do binaural beat products really improve the performance of our minds and brains?  Many people that use the products claim that they work. I have not been able to find many scientific or clinical studies on their effectiveness.   We will continue to explore this issue on the Next Brain Blog.

If you have experience with binaural beat products or know of empirical studies on their effectiveness please leave a comment.

Source:  Image of constructive interference pattern that creates binaural beat.

Want a High Performance Mind?

Combat soldiers, surgeons, ER professionals, Olympic athletes and others that face extreme-stress situations involving judgement must all develop high performance minds to be successful.   Cognitive performance in extreme circumstances has been studied closely and training programs and techniques have been developed and tested.   How to use these techniques to build a high performance mind will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.

For example, The Mind Fitness Training Institute,  is in the news for a program they have  for training the minds of US combat soldiers. They just completed a pilot study that demonstrated how mindfulness training techniques can improve working memory and affective response (or emotional control).

Soldiers in the program start by mastering attentional control and concentration using a mindfulness training technique.  A briefing document explains:

“At first, exercises emphasize building concentration by focusing on one object of attention, such as the breath, contact between the body and the floor or chair, or sensations within specific body parts. This single focus of attention is maintained throughout a practice session; when attention wanders, it is returned to the object of attention. Later in the course, exercises require attending to body sensations during movement and “shuttling” the attention between inner sensations andouter experiences (i.e., sights or sounds).”

This technique is used in many other  programs that promise to build a high performance mind.  An important finding because it tells us:

The first step in developing a high performance mind is to practice attentional control and concentration using a very simple training technique.

And you don’t need to have an extreme-stress job or attend a special training program to get started. Here is what you do:

1. Rest comfortably by laying down or sitting
2. Close your eyes if you want to
3. Focus on your stomach and feel your breathing
4. Pay attention to all your bodily sensations in your belly as  move through the complete breathing cycle of inhaling and exhaling
5. If you mind wanders to another topic or sensation return your attention to your belly and the cycle of breath.

Your only task here is to bring your mind back to the sensation of breathing every time it wonders. Sounds simple but it takes practice.  And what you are learning is invaluable – how to control your own mind!

15 minutes per day for a week should produce a noticeable result.  At the very least you will have first hand experience in attempting to control you attention in a systematic way.  If you try it and please share your experience by leaving a comment.

How Your Mind Improves With Age

We have been taught that our minds decline with age. We become more forgetful, find it harder to learn, cannot focus as intensely, loose our creative powers and cannot master new technical specialties.  Our brain cells die off, new connections don’t form and our brains shrink. A dark picture of increasing cognitive decline.

Fortunately, a growing number of studies show that some of these ideas are false and that we actually improve in certain aspects of cognitive performance as we age.   We keep most of our brain cells and can form major new connections through something called neuroplasticity much later into life than previously thought.    We develop greater abilities in drawing conclusions from examples, making judgement, seeing the meaning of situations and many other aspects of mental functioning.

In a recent blog post, Barbara Strauch, deputy science editor and health and medical science editor at The New York Times writes:

“Over the past few years, neuroscientists have begun to zero in on the brain’s changes in middle age, and what they’ve found is encouraging. Results of long-term studies show that — contrary to stereotypes — we actually grow smarter in key areas in middle age which, with longer life spans, now stretches from our mid 40s to our mid to late 60s.”

She expands on this point in her fourth coming book, The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind.

The importance of this type of research for improving our minds and brains is  significant.  Why?

The assumptions we  make about our own cognitive abilities strongly determines how well we perform.

For example, assuming you are forgetful, less creative, unable to master a second language or that math is impossible to learn all lower cognitive performance.  Changing self-limiting assumptions about our own minds and the social stereotypes about aging brains mentioned above will take a long time. But it is a powerful means for improving cognitive performance and will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.

Source:  Image of  Older Adult

Use Your Body to Improve Thinking Instantly!

Over the last 20 years scientists have made good progress in understanding how our bodies impact the way we learn, think, solve problems manage emotions and do other mental tasks. A new view has emerged called embodied cognition that argues how our minds work is strongly determined by how our bodies interact with the world.

Embodied cognition has practical implications  for improving cognitive performance and will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.  For example, taking simple actions such as literally stepping back when faced with a tough problem or more complex actions such as taking a walk lead to better results.

This is an exciting result because it shows a very simple actions can immediately improve the performance of our minds and brains!

Talking and thinking with our hands, how we sit or hold our arms (body posture) and any sort of short-duration physical activity have all be shown to improve various aspects of thinking, problem solving and learning.

Take for example the 2007 study that was recently blogged about as, Unravel Problems by Folding Your Arms, in Psychology Today. The idea that folding your arms could in fact help you solve hard problems may seem a bit simplistic but there is some neuroscience behind it:

“Crossing our arms, Friedman and Elliot argued, sends our a brains a “proprioceptive cue.” “Proprioception” is the scientific term for our perception of the relative position of our body parts. When our arms are crossed it tells the brain to buckle down and get ready to work through a difficult problem. So next time you’re faced with a protracted project or a tough task, cross your arms to see it to a speedy, successful conclusion. Just remember, while our brains perceive crossed arms as a sign of perseverance, others may perceive it as a sign of boredom. Body language can mean many different things to different people in different situations-it’s part of what makes the field so exciting!”

If you are still skeptical watch the highly effective problem solvers around you.  What do they do with their bodies when they are stumped?

Source:  Image adapted from Moving Bodies.

Morning Pages will Boost Your Creativity

Individual creativity or the mental ability to generate new and relevant ideas on-demand is a highly prized skill.   Although creativity is not fully understood there are many proven techniques we can use to improve it. Creativity will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.

A great way to get started in developing your creativity is to work through a self-paced program such as The Artist’s Way.  A primary technique the book teaches is called the Morning Pages.

“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only.”

Doing this teaches your brain how to flow,  initially without any specific purpose.  But it is the first step. Much like “just start running” would be a first step in training for a foot race.

Doing Morning Pages for at least three months should produce a noticeable change in your capacity to think creativity.

For more detail on the Morning Pages and a second technique check out Basic Tools. This is a 16-page 8.5M PDF file.

If you have been using Morning Pages or other writing-based creativity techniques please leave a comment and share your experiences and results.

Can 3 Minutes of Yoga Daily Improve Your Brain?

Doing Yoga can change how your brain functions.  Yoga as a worldview, exercise routine and even a lifestyle offers important options for improving the performance of our minds and brains.   The mind-enhancing effects of Yoga will be a regular topic on the Next Brain Blog.

A simple Yoga exercise has been in the news lately.  It involves holding your earlobes, placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth and rhythmically breathing while doing deep knee bends.  Sounds a bit strange but it does not take long.  According to many reports from teachers, doctors, therapists and scientists it produces results such as improved self-control, more mental energy and increased intelligence.

Check out this CBS news report for an introduction to the technique and what people are experiencing.

The news report mentions confirming EEG studies but I have not been able to locate those. I did find this post that offers this explanation:

“There is a lot of research to support that simple exercises like a breathing squat can improve  function, focus and efficiency in the brain.  Activation of specific acupressure points  from the earlobes during the squat exercise stimulates the brain on the opposite side.  Do the breathing squat exercise 21 times with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth. Exhale while squatting and inhale while standing up. Perform this movement with a 555 tempo. 5 seconds down-hold for 5 -5 seconds up. This simple exercise will activate chemicals in the brain, create synchronicity of the hemispheres, activate the pineal gland for awakeness and activate the pressure points of the ear lobes.   The combination of crossing the midline, as well as stimulating the pressure points creates a perfect storm of electrical brain activity that stimulates neuropathways and can literally make you think better.”

If you want to give it a try be sure you are fit enough to do deep knee beds. You can find very clear directions on exactly what to do on eHow. If you do try it out please post a comment and share your results and experience.

Source:  Exercise Image

Avoid Falling into These Common Decision Traps

Life is made up of a handful of critical decisions, hundreds of important decisions and literally thousands of minor decisions.   Taking the time to develop good decision-making skills is well worth the investment.  We will cover the topic regularly in the Next Brain Blog.

One proven way to enhance your decision-making skill is to actively manage the traps (also known as cognitive biases) that we can fall into.    The Hidden Traps in Decision Making is an easy-to-read primer filled with practical advice.  The traps or cognitive biases it covers include, for example:

• ANCHORING:  Overemphasizing the first information you recieve
• STATUS QUO:  Selecting alternatives that best fit what you are currently doing
• SUNK COST:  Making decisions that support past decisions
• CONFIRMING EVIDENCE: Seeking and accepting information that supports your current or preferred point of view.

We all have these tendencies.  They cannot be eliminated, they are part of how our brain works. We have them because they provide strong advantages in certain circumstances.  The key is to be aware of them and take simple steps to make sure they don’t trap us into making poor decisions.  For example, one way to avoid the confirming evidence trap is to be sure you always find an equal amount of evidence for and against your prevailing point of view. Or ask another to scout the opposing evidence that you might be biased against seeing as relevant.

Turns out we are loaded with dozens of biases that impact how we learn, perceive the world,  make decisions, socially interact and perform other cognition-intense tasks.  There will be a lot to blog about.  Look forward to comments on how you have learned to manage decision-making or other types of cognitive biases.

Practice Mindfulness to Sharpen Mind and Perhaps Build a Bigger Brain

Studies have shown that if you spend a lot of time juggling or playing a musical instrument the parts of your brain that supports these activities grows bigger.  London taxi cab drivers that spend a decade memorizing elaborate routes experience significant brain changes.  These facts support a major premise behind this blog namely, we are far more in charge of the shape, size, longevity and performance of our brain than we realize.

It would stand to reason that people who meditated extensively should have bigger brains.  I have found a few studies that that support this idea but there is not enough data for a firm conclusion.  In one study:

“Our data suggest that meditation practice can promote cortical plasticity in adults in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing and well-being,” says Sara Lazar, leader of the study and a psychologist at Harvard Medical School. “

In a second study:

“Using MRI scans the scientists show that there was “significantly larger cerebral measurements in mediators”.

No matter, even if mediation does not grow your brain there have been studies that demonstrate improved clarity of thinking, enhance self-control, reduced stress and self-reported well being. As such it is an important option for improving cognitive performance and will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.

Buddhist insight mediation that advocates focusing on sensation rather than our thoughts of sensation seems to produce results. It is similar to the more modern movement of mindful mediation that focuses on “being in the moment”.  Finally, there is a third, non-mediative approach to mindfulness that we will explore. It is based on the contemporary work of Ellen Langer and seeks to achieve a heightened state of situational awareness of conscious control over thoughts and actions.  Insight mediation, mindful mediation and cognitive mindfulness.

If you are interested in giving it a try I suggestion action over reading. Try this simple five-step experiment in mindful meditation.

Source: Mindfulness Image

How Fast Can You Read and Does it Matter?

Reading is a primary means of absorbing new information and knowledge.  Improving your ability to read – faster, better comprehension and in novel ways – enhances learning capacity and creativity and so it will be a frequent topic on the Next Brain Blog.

Increasing your reading speed without losing comprehension means saving time or read more in the same amount of time.   If you normally read for an hour a day increasing your reading speed from 250 words per minute (international average) to 6oo means you can read approximately 150,000 words more per week. This is the equivalent of a meaty non-fiction book every week or 52 every year.

How fast do you read? Take this quick free test from RocketReader and find out.

There are proven techniques for increasing reading speed.  For example, guiding, skimming and grouping are all proven to work. Other less proven techniques include minimizing subvocalization (talking aloud to yourself while reading) and widening your visual span (number/lengths of words you can taken in at a glance). You can learn to speed read from programs, books, workshops or software.  We will discuss all these techniques and options on the Next Brain Blog. Let’s  start with software as it affords easy experimentation as well as a good way to be systematic.

There are many software packages on the market that promise to improve your reading skills.  Check out TopTenReviews of Speed Reading Software to get a quick overview of what is available. Prices range from $12 to $80 and the more fully features packages are likely worth the extra cost.

I plan on taking the Reader’s Edge (top-rated speed reading software) 30-day challenge and will blog on the results.   In the meantime, if you have used speed reading software please post a comment and share your experiences and results.