By Gregory Kellett, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at SFSU and UCSF, and science writer for Lumos Labs.
Recent research coming out of 
Hamburg, Germany and published in the Journal of Neuroscience demonstrates that older brains still have the flexibility to literally grow. Researcher Janina Boyke and crew, split 50 people with an average age of 60 years into two groups. One half of the participants were trained in the fine art of juggling over the course of 3 months while the other half was not. Three MRI brain scans were taken: one before the juggling began, another after 3 months of juggling training and a yet a third after 3 months of no juggling.
The data revealed that:
- The juggling group showed significant increases in brain gray matter above the non-juggling controls. These increases took place in the hippocampus (responsible for memory formation), the nucleus accumbens (involved in reward systems) and various visual centers.
- Three months after the end of training none of the individuals from the juggling group could still juggle and the gray matter increases had declined back to baseline. (Can you say “Use it or lose it“)
The authors note the growth of the nucleus accumbens (involved in reward systems) to be of particular interest, suggesting that it may have been involved in “…turning reward information into motivated action”.
8 Comments
It is good the way people doing brain studies are starting to collect together all the brain development requirements. The more obvious requirements which follow from that the brain is like a bodily organ and needs certain nutrition and exercise to keep functioning at different levels keep being proved. Some of the similarities to a computer also produce suggestions for brain aspects that can be enhanced to optimise brain function. The concept that you are to a significant extent your brain is also starting to be explored. Amazingly the many skills of the brain are still unclear and new possibilities are always being found. It seems that each skill can require some very specific development or training. For example spoon benders such as Uri Geller also suggest that psychic skills tend to relax away if not practised.
Such findings also hint at the radical changes in education that are slowly developing. For example the current technique of schooling or an ethnocentric enslaving of children for 15 to 20 years starts to have many questions attached to it and significant changes seem obviously necessary. It seems there could be big bonuses waiting for the communities that first manage the juggling act of integrating their children and elderly into the community and its productivity. Similar bonuses potentially await those developing brain training and development courses to help everyone enhance their brain function and enjoyment.
if human brain contains billions of neurons why aren’t all of us intelligent and super sucessful is this problem linked to the way we r programming our brain.
ravi, because we humans are using only 10-15%
of our brains. If you can figure it out on how to use 60-90% then you are smarter than Einstein.
One view is that there is internal programming and external programming of the brain. Both forms of brain programming are strongly effected by community forces of which for example the male female imbalance is one of the strongest. Understanding of the forces that shape the community or community engineering is still near the mystical apple on the head stage of classical mechanics. One of the basic rules found was that the slowest actually controls the rate of the overall interactions/ reactions and so in a community where children arent yet fully equal you have to consider the generally slower moving and more clumped together/weaker interaction females to find the brains and norms and pathological states that are probably going to determine the communities success and future. Western female social brain training is developing some strong trends currently such as alcoholism. For example bitchiness is a currently celebrated female condition that is variously a medical condition, a minor form of cognitive impairment, a hormone imbalance and many other things that all effect the brains overall level of functioning.
However as economic, sporting and hence probably intellectual leadership of the world is currently moving towards asia the new leading world brain style could be more asian. The appearance of mega intellects that characterised asia and india years ago could be entertaining. Mega sages and their effects through religion have had similarly powerful effects. For example historically it is suggested that christianity is much more violent and buddhism/ confucianism more peaceful however there are advantages to high power violent interaction and to peaceful relaxing communities just as for an individual balancing their activity and relaxation can benefit their brain health and development.
I face lot of problem in my office, i sometimes cannot make sense of ?
what my senior is instructing me to do, i feel as if i don’t understand what he is talking about and things that he is trying me to explain. what is my problem or do u think i m stupid. one solution that comes to my mind is reading books involving intellectually stimulating article and solving logic and problem solving exercises, since in a office majority fo communication is oral form of communication and books r written form of communication by reading books and making sense of what i mreading my ability to comprehend data is likely to be improved. do u think i m on the right path.
Hi Sanjay,
I think doing things to stimulate our intellectual functions are always good like a walk is good for the body.
However there can be other reasons for the experience you have talked about and I was a bit concerned that you queried whether you were “stupid”. People communicate differently, some may talk fast and cover complex ideas quickly, or have different ways of processing information that makes the way they communicate ideas different. If it is just one person you are experiencing difficulty with – your senior – it is not likely you are suffering from an intellectual problem as cognitive problems are likely to show up across the board and in other things you do.
It might be useful to jot down any difficulties you notice you are having with written or oral communication if you are feeling it is with other situations as well, to see if you see a pattern? Or to take what you’ve jotted down to your doctor to talk about?
There can be lots of things to explore that could help change this difficulty between you and also lots of possible reasons for it. It may be you and your senior have some significant differences in the way you both process information so it is hard to give and receive communication together.
It may also be possible that there are some subjective factors going on that are interfering with processing information – say feeling anxious around this person for example. Feeling nervous can reduce some of our thinking abilities and if you are labelling yourself as stupid and the senior has some control over your job security this type of stress could get worse and make the problem worse.
Are you from different cultures?
Have you had an accident which involved a blow to the head or concussion?
How was school, did you have any difficulties like this or with reading or any type of communication there?
Are you new to the job / is he/she new to the role?
There is information out there on different learning styles (auditory, visual, kinesthetic), the senior may not be pitching information at the way your mind finds it easier to learn new things.
Can you talk to him/her about it or do you have someone supportive at work you can talk things over with who could help? Your senior may be able to make some changes in how they communicate so that things are clearer for you?
It is clear you want to help yourself and are able to take responsibility for your half of any difficulty, which is important when working through problems with other people. If the senior does this too, you will find a good solution together.
Is it possible that people that have higher IQ’s actually use a higher % of their brain than those with lower IQ’s?
Dear Permalink, Just wanted to let you know, research has been out for a very long time, showing that the 10 to 15% use of the brain is just a myth. We use our brains to full capacity. Of course, this brain training will only help us to build new connections and reinforce current pathways. This can only be good. Thanks, Michele
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