Brain Training - The Science And Its Application
For children, learning happens effortlessly. By six years of age, children know over ten thousand words and learn dozens of new words on a daily basis. By contrast, learning a new language as an adult can be hard going. This curious and dramatic difference between the child and the adult brain is so familiar that we don't even question it. But the mechanism and reason for the difference provides a powerful way for us to increase our adult mental abilities.
The growing brain produces large quantities of a nerve-growth protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. This protein activates the region of the brain responsible for attention and memory formation. This unstemmed BDNF production ensures that children pay attention to everything (except perhaps their parents!) readily absorbing new information and in the process forming new memories and brain structures.
In late adolescence the body produces a lot more BDNF, so much more that it turns off the brain's attention center. This shutting down effortless learning and constant attention is very important; without it we would be forever swamped by new details finding it hard to choose between long term goals and short term distractions.
But scientists have recently shown that the default "off" mode of the adult brain's attention center doesn't mean that we're resigned to a static brain, or, worse yet, a long, inevitable mental decline. As adults we can reactivate the learning center by engaging in activities that requires focus and attention. When these activities also produce a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, we have the ingredients for neurogenesis and brain plasticity.
Known in the scientific community as neurogenesis and neuroplasticity the ability to rewire the brain provides the foundation for effective brain training. Effective brain training programs use mental exercises that demand focus and reward while training memory, processing speed, and problem-solving ability.
The Three Building Blocks of Effective Brain Training
1. Focus
To activate the nucleus basalis we must exert considerable focus and attention. This stimulates the nucleus basalis to produce acetylcholine, which in turn instructs the brain to fix the memories being formed.
2. Reward
Tackling a mental challenge that yields a sense of satisfaction or reward causes the brain to produce a second substance crucial to plastic change called dopamine.
3. Targeted Mental Exercise
Acetylcholine and dopamine together stimulate new cell growth (neurogenesis), creating the right conditions for change in the brain's function and structure (neuroplasticity). By simultaneously training core cognitive functions the cell growth and plastic change strengthen and improve those core functions.
Brain Training In Practice
All kinds of mental tasks produce some degree of neural growth, helping us stay sharp - learning a new language, solving puzzles, taking up a new career. But such incidental change isn't as directed and effective as that produced by some of the brain training exercises that scientists have designed.
Brain training aims to produce reliable and measurable changes in brain function: Learning specialists have begun using targeted training to address and even eradicate learning disabilities; Adults in their forties, fifties and beyond now use brain training programs to help reduce or prevent memory loss as well as delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms or dementia; An increasing number of school systems employ brain training so that children will learn more effectively; And across the world individuals are beginning to seize on the advantages for self-improvement promised by programs that can even increase our problem-solving ability.
Brain training is relatively new, with such untested products on the market it's hard to know which ones will achieve the desired results. This presents us with the challenge of first identifying which product is right for us. They range in cost from less than fifty dollars to several hundred dollars, and the variance in efficacy is, if anything, even greater. (Some brain training programs are both affordable and effective.)
Fortunately, a little due diligence on this front will pay dividends. First, check the scientific basis for the training exercises. It's a bad sign if the marketing material describes the science and benefits of the program in vague or general terms without spelling out what the training is designed to accomplish, and what specifically to expect in terms of improvement. And the vendor should tell you for how long and with what duration you should be training to achieve those gains.
It's perhaps equally important to remember that brain training requires something from us, too. Plastic change can't be had without diligence and stamina. To use the analogy of physical fitness, we can't expect to increase our brain power without breaking a mental sweat. If we are willing to make the investment, however, the rewards will be well worth the effort.
The growing brain produces large quantities of a nerve-growth protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF. This protein activates the region of the brain responsible for attention and memory formation. This unstemmed BDNF production ensures that children pay attention to everything (except perhaps their parents!) readily absorbing new information and in the process forming new memories and brain structures.
In late adolescence the body produces a lot more BDNF, so much more that it turns off the brain's attention center. This shutting down effortless learning and constant attention is very important; without it we would be forever swamped by new details finding it hard to choose between long term goals and short term distractions.
But scientists have recently shown that the default "off" mode of the adult brain's attention center doesn't mean that we're resigned to a static brain, or, worse yet, a long, inevitable mental decline. As adults we can reactivate the learning center by engaging in activities that requires focus and attention. When these activities also produce a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, we have the ingredients for neurogenesis and brain plasticity.
The Three Building Blocks of Effective Brain Training
1. Focus
To activate the nucleus basalis we must exert considerable focus and attention. This stimulates the nucleus basalis to produce acetylcholine, which in turn instructs the brain to fix the memories being formed.
2. Reward
Tackling a mental challenge that yields a sense of satisfaction or reward causes the brain to produce a second substance crucial to plastic change called dopamine.
3. Targeted Mental Exercise
Acetylcholine and dopamine together stimulate new cell growth (neurogenesis), creating the right conditions for change in the brain's function and structure (neuroplasticity). By simultaneously training core cognitive functions the cell growth and plastic change strengthen and improve those core functions.
Brain Training In Practice
All kinds of mental tasks produce some degree of neural growth, helping us stay sharp - learning a new language, solving puzzles, taking up a new career. But such incidental change isn't as directed and effective as that produced by some of the brain training exercises that scientists have designed.
Brain training aims to produce reliable and measurable changes in brain function: Learning specialists have begun using targeted training to address and even eradicate learning disabilities; Adults in their forties, fifties and beyond now use brain training programs to help reduce or prevent memory loss as well as delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms or dementia; An increasing number of school systems employ brain training so that children will learn more effectively; And across the world individuals are beginning to seize on the advantages for self-improvement promised by programs that can even increase our problem-solving ability.
Brain training is relatively new, with such untested products on the market it's hard to know which ones will achieve the desired results. This presents us with the challenge of first identifying which product is right for us. They range in cost from less than fifty dollars to several hundred dollars, and the variance in efficacy is, if anything, even greater. (Some brain training programs are both affordable and effective.)
Fortunately, a little due diligence on this front will pay dividends. First, check the scientific basis for the training exercises. It's a bad sign if the marketing material describes the science and benefits of the program in vague or general terms without spelling out what the training is designed to accomplish, and what specifically to expect in terms of improvement. And the vendor should tell you for how long and with what duration you should be training to achieve those gains.
It's perhaps equally important to remember that brain training requires something from us, too. Plastic change can't be had without diligence and stamina. To use the analogy of physical fitness, we can't expect to increase our brain power without breaking a mental sweat. If we are willing to make the investment, however, the rewards will be well worth the effort.
About the Author:
Oxford-trained scientist, author, and technologist, Martin G. Walker is a member of The British Neuroscience Association, Learning and The Brain, and MENSA. His company Mind Sparke publishes free information on the field of neuroscience and brain training as well as effective and affordable brain fitness software.
By Dimas Prast
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