Openmindagile

Efficiency Of Brain Training
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Let's do a bit of physiology - Do you know the essential features of brain training?

Increasingly, scientific evidence tells us that we can dramatically increase the probability of staying mentally and physically fit throughout our lives.

Physical exercise, good nutrition, social connection with others, and mental stimulation all play important parts in insuring that our brains remain sharp and agile.

There are several physiological mechanisms to help keep your brain healthy:
1. Stimulated and therefore active neurons get more oxygen and nutritive elements.
2. Neural stimulation multiplies the number of connections between synapses.
3. Keeping your neurons active is the key to generating new ones, as well as developing them and helping them survive.
4. Even in adult life, neurons can regenerate with stem cells.

In other words, complex mental activity can help protect the brain by building cognitive and brain reserves. These reserves represent the increase in neurons and synaptic connections (as opposed to what was believed so far, new neurons can be generated at any age). Furthermore, this reserve also represents an active process of neural plasticity allowing to optimize a person's performances either by calling upon other brain regions or by adopting new cognitive strategies.

Thus strengthened, we increase our neural network's capacity to face the effects of aging or neurodegenerative diseases.

Over the last 25 years, scientists and physicians affiliated with medical schools and universities all over the world have followed and tested large groups of people to try to understand why some people stay sharp and with-it and other people don't, over the span of their lives. As a result, we now have a significant body of scientific research in an area called "cognitive reserve".

Stimulate your brain to preserve your cognitive skills

The phrase "Use it or lose it" applies to muscles in our bodies as well as to neural pathways and connections in our brains. This proves to be true at any age. Scientists all over the world agree that the evidence is now overwhelming: mentally stimulating lives "boost brain power". However, retirement often also goes along with less brain stimulation. In order to avoid memory disorders and age related brain decline, cognitive functions should be stimulated as a whole. Indeed, maintaining a high quality of life requires a sharp brain.

Several studies support the hypothesis of cognitive reserve and reinforce the importance of good physical health in keeping the brain fit. There are several results citing challenging, interactive games as one effective method to keep the brain challenged and agile.

How to Get a Photographic Memory: 6 Tips to Become a Better Visual Learner
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If you’ve ever met someone with a so-called “photographic memory,” then you know what a superpower this skill can be. Whether it’s remembering phone numbers, grocery lists, or to turn off the lights, a photographic or “eidetic” memory can help in all aspects of your life. In fact, every single memory champion in the world uses a variant of visual memory techniques.

In this article, I will show you how anyone can gain a photographic memory just by practicing a few minutes a day. No brain exercises required!

1. Discover your innate photographic memory
When I tell people I teach memory and learning courses, their first response is always the same. “OMG! I need that. I’ve always wished I had a photographic memory.”

Well, I have good news for you: you do! You just don’t know how to use it (yet). As I teach in my SuperLearner program, it turns out that we are all wired for visual memory. Research shows that pictures are much more memorable than other forms of memory. This is thanks to millions of years of evolution, during which visual memory gave us the greatest survival advantage – at least, after smell and taste. This, incidentally, is why we always remember smells and tastes so well!

If you think about it, you don’t remember the exact words you heard on the news during a historical event like September 11th; but, you will never forget the shocking pictures. You will also remember where you were, and what your surroundings looked like.

This is why the first step to developing your visual memory is to acknowledge that you already have one!

2. Improve your memory by visualizing what you want to remember
Now that we know why visual memory is superior, it’s time to put this knowledge to good use. Many students are surprised to find out that my SuperLearner course is almost 70% about improving your memory. Long before diving into speed reading, brain exercises, or brain health, we build a solid foundation by developing short-term memory and the ability to recall. This all starts with improving the way you memorize new information.

Here’s the idea. For anything you want to remember, imprint in your mind’s eye a vivid picture describing that piece of information. At first, this will be tricky. You won’t have the creativity or the techniques to convert many types of information to pictures. Start small. Memorize your grocery list by picturing each of the items. We can all visualize apples, milk, and cereal, right? Now imprint in your mind’s eye exactly how that picture looks. What color? What shape? What size?

Once you’ve become proficient in visualizing these creative, bizarre pictures, it’s time to apply them to a wider range of memory challenges.

4. Expand your skills by converting everything to pictures
I know what you’re thinking. This is all well and good for grocery lists, but what about things like numbers? What about abstract or complex concepts?

5. Take it to the next level with the memory palace technique
If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you may have already heard of “the memory palace” technique, or “the method of loci.” But guess what? It’s not just fiction! Every single memory athlete and champion has used this one powerful eidetic memory technique for decades. In fact, it’s even believed that the ancient Greeks used it to memorize tomes like The Iliad and The Odyssey.

The basic idea is this. Take the visual mnemonics or “markers” you’ve created, and place them throughout a building you know. This could be your office, your home, or a store you frequent. This serves an additional benefit beyond just organization. These places are already stored in our memory, so adding connections to them strengthens your memory of new information.

You’ll be surprised to discover that your brain is loaded with the layouts of hundreds of different buildings you’ve visited over the years. Our brains do this for the same reason they remember pictures: evolutionary advantage. If you’re a paleolithic caveman or cavewoman, it’s a great idea to remember where you put things, or how to navigate your environment from memory. For this reason, our brains store locations and their layouts automatically; we don’t even have to try. I bet you remember the layout of your parents’ room growing up – even if you haven’t been there in decades. This information is sitting dormant in your brain, waiting to be used. The memory palace technique piggybacks on that infrastructure, using it to enhance and organize your photographic memory.

For this, you’ll want to learn more advanced techniques for “converting” information into pictures. Then, you can actually use your eidetic memory to memorize anything. These techniques include The Major Method or the “Person Action Object” (PAO) system used by memory competitors. Tools like these, combined with a photographic memory, allow you to memorize dates, phone numbers, credit card numbers – you name it.
Over time, you will develop this skill to the point that you’ll be able to do it without thinking. I remember a friend telling me he was learning Portuguese, and a visual of a map of Brazil popped into my head.

But in order for these mind photos to be memorable, they’re going to have to be unique and creative, which leads me to my third tip.

3. Create novel, unique, outrageous, and connected visualizations
Across my courses, one of the most important things I teach is the idea of making your visualizations memorable. After all, if you begin visualizing everything you want to remember, you’re going to have thousands of pictures floating around in your mind. How do you keep them all straight and remember them all? By making them unique.

Most memory athletes agree that the best way to do this is to make them bizarre. Violent, sexual, or just strange imagery tends to work particularly well. Don’t worry. These visualizations are just for you, so you can feel free to make them as weird as you want.

While you’re at it, try to make these visualizations connect to things you already know. Our brains rank information based on how well it relates to the things we already know and care about. By using images of people, places, or things we already know in our visualizations, we can then increase our likelihood of remembering them. We can “trick” our brains into thinking that these visualizations are important by association.

A Beginner’s Guide to Sensory Imagery: Types and Examples
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Believe it or not, we all use and read sensory imagery every day. By sensory imagery, we mean descriptive language that engages the reader’s five senses: sight, taste, touch, sound, and smell.

The next time you listen to someone talk about something that happened to them, listen closely to their story. Do they use exaggeration to give you a sense of how something felt or looked? Do they compare a sound to something impossibly loud or soft in a simile or metaphor? Do they slow down when describing things so that you can put together a clear picture of the situation in your mind? All of that is sensory imagery at work. People use sensory imagery when they tell stories without even realizing it.

What is sensory imagery?
Sensory imagery appeals to the senses of sight, taste, smell, touch, and sound to create a vivid and evocative picture in the mind of the reader. It is the hallmark of successful writers and poets, and it has been for centuries. If you can master these techniques, your writing will stand out and transport the reader straight into your world.

How sensory imagery works
To better understand how sensory imagery works, let’s read a very short story about pie.

“I like pie a lot. I really wanted to make a pie one day, but I didn’t have the ingredients. So, I went to the store and bought what I needed. Then I went home to make the pie. After the pie was done, I tasted it and really liked it.”

Do you know what happens in the story? Yes. But do you really feel like you were there? Not really. One way we can solve the issue is by adding some details. I could write about what kind of pie I made and list the ingredients. Or I could mention how I got to the store and how long I had to wait in the checkout line. But none of that would help make the reader feel like they were there with me. What’s missing is sensory imagery.

There are two main ways to talk about things that happen. First, we can list events in the order that they happen. This is called a plot in fiction writing or a sequence in nonfiction writing. Plots and sequences are important, but they’re not how people actually experience the world around them. Instead, people experience things subjectively through their senses. And most importantly, people remember their experiences by how they felt. In other words, sensory imagery is how people can relate to events that happen in a plot or sequence.

Let’s look at a sentence from the story and see how we could make it better with sensory imagery:

Original:

“I like pie a lot.”

With sensory imagery:

“I love pie. Whenever I smell the sweet aroma of buttery crust and spiced fruit, my mouth waters.”

Chances are that you can already start to smell the pie yourself and experience what I do. That’s how sensory imagery works.

Photographic Memory Training : Remember Everything!
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Having a photographic memory is a blessing in disguise and those who have this quality can instantly recall images, names, words, numbers and other information with great accuracy. Sharp memory skills depend on the neuroplasticity of the brain or the ability to form new connections by breaking the old connections from time to time. Some people are born with excellent memory skills, while others need to practice techniques to sharpen their memory. Understanding how visual memory works can help you discover the quickest way to learn and memorize things.

Photographic Memory Training
Memory training is not very difficult; even a child can learn photographic memory techniques without much effort. It takes you back to the ancient times when special techniques and tools were used to improve memory and memorize important things. Below are some photographic memory training techniques that will not only help you improve your memory but also significantly help you improve your ability to recall information:

By improving lifestyle – Many people face issues of memory loss and most of them arise out of anxiety, depression, anger etc. There are different therapies to help you get a grab on some of these symptoms and they include talk therapy, musical therapy, light therapy, aromatherapy etc. You can spend more time doing the activities you love to do and it’s important that you always try to keep your mind active. Find out more on how to develop a photographic memory in our course on mastering memory.
Applying appropriate memory strategies – Minimizing distractions is one of the best ways to develop your photographic memory. Forgetfulness is not a memory issue, but is the result of distraction. So focus on one thing, instead of trying out multiple things together.

By visualizing things – Try to improve your general memory. This method is just like seeing old photographs for remembering things from the past. You can also make use of image associations and this can be done by visualizing things. It is easy to recall if the image is imprinted on your mind. For example, if you are searching for car keys, try to visualize the place where the car keys might have been kept. This method is very effective for remembering anything in general.
Using military techniques – These are the techniques that are used by the military to train their commanders and important personnel; they include techniques like objective viewing, psychic spies, photographic memories etc. One can remember pictures, images, locations or coordinates in an effective manner with the help of these techniques.

Photographic memory training courses and exercises –

Photographic memory training exercises are used to improve the memory of an individual. There are numerous exercises such as word association, list building, storytelling, playing picture games, etc. Exercises like picture games make the training experience very interesting and people are more likely to memorize what they hear and put into practice effectively.

Exercise Adds Sparks To Your Thinking Patterns

"Children who are physically fit absorb and retain new information more effectively than children who are out of shape, a new study finds.." an article in the New York times explains. Although this study is mainly targeted at trying to bring back phys ed classes to schools, it can also be true for people our age.

A study done by American College of Sports Medicine found that a children who exercised for ten minutes before a test scored better than those who didn't. Studies have shown that children should be exercising for at least an hour each day, which most children aren't. The same goes for us. Although we are all busy, we should take at least a half hour to and hour a day engaging in some form of physical activity.

Physical Fitness and Brain Health

You may have wondered about actual fitness exercises. Does being physically fit help the brain?

Definitely, says the Harvard article published for Women’s Health Watch. In laboratories using rodents for experiments, scientists have discovered that rodents who spend most of their time running on exercise wheels have better brains than their more sedentary mates. Similar studies in the past have not found any conclusive evidence that fitness improves brain functions, but a breakthrough study – the first of its kind – was conducted by the University of
Illinois (Urbana-Champaign campus) wherein 55 subjects aged 55-79 were measured for their aerobic capacity during walking and treadmill tests.

The subjects were a mixture of sedentary and physically active individuals. The conclusion, published in the Journal of Gerontology three years ago, revealed that “physically fit subjects had less age-related brain tissue shrinkage than less active subjects.” With the use of an MRI machine, researchers spotted distinct differences in the frontal, temporal and parietal regions of the brain – where tissues in these regions were vital for memory, learning and cell communication functions.

A related experiment also showed that aerobic fitness training largely influenced the cognitive abilities of women and men aged 55-80. It was learned that exercise benefited human abilities such as attention, organization and planning, and that a combined program of aerobics and strength training were more effective than aerobics alone. Finally, it was also discovered that exercising for less than 30 minutes per session did not have any significant impact on cognitive functions.[15]

In the next Chapter, we will discuss…er…hmmm….oh yes, memory!

We’d also like to suggest the following that you can do whether in
school, at the office, in the restaurant, in the parking lot, etc.

Exercise 1: In School


If your school cafeteria has a signboard describing the menu for that day, make an effort to read it in full and try to memorize the items on the menu.

We tend to stare absent-mindedly at bulletin boards and not really absorb anything because the information is either irrelevant or unimportant. Make it a daily habit to read the menu and try to think of ways to remember what you read. For instance, if the menu has a list:

Quiche Lorraine
Clam Chowder Soup
Fish and Chips
Vanilla Pudding, Chocolate Chip Cookies

Herbal Tea

As you read each item, imagine yourself eating these and identifying what each item tastes like. And try this: take the first letters of each item and keep repeating them to yourself. So you have QCFVH. Repeat: QCFVH. One more time: QCFVH. It’s no harder than memorizing the acronym of your favorite radio station, isn’t it?

If a fellow student ever asks, “hey, does anyone know what the cafeteria is serving today? I’m starving mad.” Be the first to tell him.

Exercise 2: At the Office


This should be a fun exercise if you’re into languages. You know the saying, it’s better to have two brains than one! Most bilingual people have an edge over their uni-lingual friends and associates. They stretch their brains and make them work harder as they find the equivalent word in a foreign language.

In the US, Spanish is becoming the second most frequently used language while in Canada, it is French.

Throughout the day, as you meet people and see objects in the company, think of the Spanish or French equivalent. For instance, you take a break and get up from your desk. You head for the washrooms. You see the following on your way:

English
Spanish
French
water fountain “bebedor”
“fontaine”

boss “patron”
“patron” flowers “flor”
“fleurs” computer
“ordenador” “ordinateur”

carpet “alfombra”
“tapis”

Continue this exercise and watch your bilingual vocabulary grow.
By putting the words into objects and persons you meet along your way, you are making a conscious effort to work your brain more.


Exercise 3: In the Restaurant (or any public place)


You can take a good look at your waiter (or waitress) and take in his features, any special moles, hand or eye movements, or if he’s got a ring on his finger. This is like practicing a bit of detective work, although it may not be a good exercise to do if you are dining with your spouse. Another exercise would be to look around the restaurant and make a guess as to how many customers
there are. An alternative would be to spot unusual objects in the restaurant and pretend you’ve got a photographic mind and memorize their place. This way you sharpen your sense of vision and hearing.

Making a conscious effort to know what is around you helps you define your place in relation to all the persons and objects that share the same space.

Exercise 4: In the Parking Lot


You may have complained a few times about forgetting where you
parked the car or getting the feeling that your car had been stolen.

This happens frequently in a large shopping mall where the parking lots are located in different quadrants of the building. When you park your car, make a mental note of all possible “aid locators”: you’re in row #, facing a building (or highway or a large sign), the make and color of the car to your left and right, etc. This way,
when you’re done with your shopping and ready to leave, you’ll know exactly where to go and what to look for. Instead of looking for your car in particular, you’ll be locating the signposts, buildings, and other cars that will help you pinpoint the location of your car.

By doing this exercise regularly, we’ll doubt you’ll be complaining about the same thing again!

A writer who shared a few mental exercises on a web site said that “any routine of exercises which causes you to think is of value. You will be amazed to find how quickly the mind will respond, and in a very short time you'll notice marked improvement in your ability to think quickly, logically and creatively.”[11]

This writer also suggested this exercise. While driving, concentrate on the license plate of the car ahead of you. Take the license number and reduce it to a single digit by adding all the digits together. If the result you obtain has


more than one digit, add them. Continue the addition until you arrive at one digit. The writer provides the example below.[12]

978 = 9+7+8 = 24 = 2+4 = 6; 164 = 1+6+4 = 11 = 1+1 = 2;
899 = 8+9+9 = 26 = 2+6 = 8

If you come across quizzes in newspapers and magazines, do them as well. After some time, you’ll discover how much faster your brain handles information.

Keeping the Brain Healthy

Next to worrying about your car’s wear and tear and the sagging muscles in your body, how often do you think of keeping your brain fit and in the best of health?

When you consistently forget things and are unable to think creatively about your daily activities, do you simply shrug your shoulders and attribute this to the aging process?

A member of your family has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Do you consider this disease the same way people think of cancer – that is, as an aging disease?

How much time do you allocate for mental and physical exercise?

Regardless of age, these questions should be gnawing at you because the sooner you take care of your brain, the better your chances of becoming alert and productive in your post-retirement years.

Does Age Have Anything to do with Brain Health?

Nonsense. The thinking that brain health declines with age is a misleading belief and closes the door to exciting opportunities and research about age and the brain. If you read the web sites of the American Society of Aging and the American Association of Retired Persons, you will realize that there exists overwhelming evidence that older individuals can have as much brain power as teenagers.

Thanks to Princeton University researchers and others who have been studying the science of the brain, a “renewing” mechanism was discovered in mature brains; this renewing mechanism creates neurons that travel towards the cerebral cortex and become a part of the brain’s processing system.[9]

When a fetus is formed, the brain begins to develop at just three weeks old. This pattern of growing, developing, expanding and adapting continues throughout its lifetime. Over 100 billion neurons are formed in a baby. In the next three years of the baby’s life, these neurons will develop trillions of what Dr. Gary Nulls calls “synaptic connections.” With the passage of time, those synapses that are exposed to constant stimulation become stronger and spread out, while those that are seldom used are discarded.

Scientists have a name for this period of adaptive growth: “plasticity.” The Center for Brain Health in the University of Texas in Dallas takes the phenomenon of plasticity seriously. The Center has been conducting research for the last fifteen years, which involves the close relationship of brain research and clinical care. Their primary objective is to promote the discovery and application of new interventions (e.g., cognitive-linguistic, pharmacological, social) to maximize mental functioning.[10]

Up until a decade ago, physicians were telling patients who were
complaining of memory loss and mental slowdown that this was something that comes as a result of the aging process: old neurons would die and nothing could replace them.

In a broad sense, brain health relies on constant stimulation, mental
activity and challenge, thus confirming the popular expression, “use it or lose it.”

Age, therefore, should not be our excuse. Our bodies, when taken care of conscientiously, will continue to serve us well. The same is true for the brain - if given the same proper attention, it will not abandon us. There is a price tag that comes with this. That price tag is our vigilance about the negative factors that contribute to unhealthy brains: environment, nutrition and diet, stress and emotion. An ounce of neglect in any of these factors could translate into a pound of trouble later on.

How to Keep the Brain Healthy

We used to think that if we read six books a year, did crossword puzzles on the subway, and add and subtract numbers without using a calculator, we were doing our share of keeping mentally fit. These days, a lot has changed.

Mental exercises like these are still excellent exercises and are being used by thousands, but new studies indicate that there are other mental – as well as physical - exercises that we can do to keep our gray matter in tip top form.

Remember those innocent days of our youth when we had fertile imagination and could easily conjure up situations and play pretend? When we an invitation for them to ask our friends, “do you want to play with me today”, we’re actually extending
join us in whatever fantasy that’s brewing in our minds (“you’re the doctor, I’m the nurse, and we have to cure little Sue because she has a stomach ache”). It was a wonderful time of life – our curiosity and our sense of discovery filled us with challenges.

Our entire childhood was like a burst of lightning and an amusing upward learning pattern that cultivated our minds and fortified our brains. Mental Exercises As we said earlier, one way of keeping the brain healthy is by doing some mental exercises. If you do crosswords or calculate numbers in your head, that’s great, keep it up.

Look at these green lines and move your head. Do they move?

A Map of the Brain

Writers who describe the brain tend to use the phrase “architecture of the brain.” We can see why. To use the term “architecture” suggests that like a skyscraper or an urban piece constituted of concrete slab, the brain is a complex system of beams, columns and walls that rests on the most fundamental elements of graph theory or plane geometry with a dozen or so engineering equations intertwined.

But that’s too fancy for our taste. If we have to sound hip about the
brain, we’d much rather compare it to the Los Angeles freeway during rush hour. Now that’s much better, isn’t it? You have movement, dynamism and complexity – so unlike a static architectural production, cold and unforgiving.

If a surgeon peeled off the skin and hair off a human being to expose his brain, we would probably reel and turn away from such a grotesque sight – lumps of raw ground beef held together by a fragile piece of glue. If we had the courage to look inside, however, we’d probably be entranced, marveling at how it does sort of resemble the LA freeway. To be able to see the brain in action would be like watching shooting stars and passing comets in the universe.

Peeking into the Brain

If you read about the brain, you’ll come across terms that you may have already learned in high school, so this section will be a quick review of the parts of the brain.

To better explain what the brain consists of and which parts are
responsible for certain functions, we’ll take a hypothetical situation. Imagine that you’re in the cockpit of a 747, seated beside the chief pilot. In this scene, you are an invisible observer; the pilot does not know you’re there. He has an emergency situation to deal with but for as long as there is no immediate danger he sees no need to announce it to the passengers.

The pilot has just received news that there is a deadly storm heading towards the aircraft. He has about 20 minutes to think of a set of maneuvers to either (a) avoid the path of the storm or (b) maintain his present course so he could land at the intended destination on time.

As he communicates with the air traffic controllers, he begins to realize the seriousness of the situation and his mind literally goes on overdrive. There are 274 lives he is responsible for. The kinds of decisions he makes will either save those lives or cut them short. The traffic controller’s words were “you can try to weather the storm, but it has a wind velocity which we’re not sure the aircraft can withstand.”

The pilot’s brain goes to work. Right beneath each statement is the part of the brain that’s working (in bold) as he’s thinking and deciding – and reacting.

The pilot is informed he’s got 20 minutes to make a decision: he either changes his trajectory completely or stays the course hoping the aircraft is strong enough to withstand battering from the storm. He’s breathing faster and his heart rate is pounding: HINDBRAIN
He steers the plane a little to the left, presses some controls on the panel to increase altitude. He does these steps almost by rote: CEREBELLUM (located in the hindbrain)

His eyes are focused in the vast darkness before him. He blinks
constantly making sure his path is clear: MIDBRAIN

At this point, the pilot is analyzing his fuel capacity. If he changes trajectory to avoid the storm completely, that means a three hour delay. Does he have sufficient fuel? His mind races as he tries to remember other emergency procedures. What are the pros and cons? He recalled a fellow pilot who had to make the same kind of decision and almost didn’t make it: FOREBRAIN

Pilot is now arguing with himself. He keeps saying “what if” and then answers it himself. His abstract reasoning has never been this sharp before.

These emergencies are making him think at double the speed. Looking for answers…imagining the alternatives…evaluating scenario A versus scenario B: RIGHT HEMISPHERE (located in the cerebrum)

Pilot re-establishes communication with air traffic control. “I’ll change course.” He outlines his plan in detail, talks to the control tower and assures them he has sufficient fuel: LEFT HEMISPHERE (located in the cerebrum)

Pilot thinks about his wife back home. If he doesn’t make it, did he update his will? If he makes it, he’ll ask for a month’s leave, take his wife to the Caribbean for a much needed vacation. It’s been a heck of a month, he says to himself. They hardly saw each other. Is she seeing someone else? FRONTAL LOBE

Two hours and twenty minutes later, pilot taxis into runway 8B. “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome home. We apologize for the delay. We needed to change direction because of a storm brewing over Hokkaido Island in Japan.

We’ll be pleased to make alternatives for those who have been inconvenienced by this delay. Thank you for flying with Brainwave Airlines, your thinking airline.”

Pilot walks into the pilot executive lounge and is greeted by a warm round of applause. “What’s this, he asks. “Your reward for thinking and planning well”, says his boss. Someone told us you love sushi and kimchi – well, here’s a plate. No charge. Enjoy it.” His colleagues shake his hand as they exit the lounge saying “well done, kiddo. Thank goodness, cabin air didn’t shrink your brain. Brilliant maneuvering!” Seeing the sushi, he had almost forgotten how famished he was. He sat down and devoured the meal, relishing every morsel. The best meal he’s had in months! PARIETAL LOBE

As he drives to his hotel, he made a note that he’d have to reconstruct the events of the night and input it into the database of the emergency manual for pilots. He’ll do that first thing in the morning while it’s still fresh in his mind and can remember every detail and maneuver he executed in the last three hours: HIPPOCAMPUS

End of film clip. Let’s summarize what we’ve just learned about the components of the brain.

One incontestable fact we must accept: the brain is the most complex part of the human body.[3] We’d like to add our bit: some brains are more complex than others; this is why we have individuals who are more complicated than others and hence difficult to understand.

The brain weighs only three pounds, but this lightweight, mass holds our intelligence, puts some sense to all five senses, sets our bodies in motion and directs our behavior. Taking all the brains of our fellow human beings and putting them together would enable us to define civilization and encapsulate the story of humanity.
Since much knowledge has been gained from the study of the brain in the last two to three decades, Steven Pinker says that the United States government thought it appropriate to designate the 1990s as the Decade of the Brain. He quips, “But there will never be a Decade of the Pancreas.”[4] This is because the brain enjoys special status. That special status resides in the brain’s ability to make humans see, feel, think, choose and act – and calls it information processing.[5]

Just as the cell is the basic unit of human life, the brain is made up of three major units:
Forebrain
Midbrain
Hindbrain

Forebrain - this is the most highly developed section of the brain. It contains the cerebrum and other structures. When people look at pictures of the brain, the first thing they usually see is the cerebrum which is located at the top of the brain where most of a person’s intellectual activities come from. It houses your memories, makes you capable of planning, imagining and thinking. It is the part that assists you in recognizing your friends and family, enjoying a movie and playing solitaire.

Midbrain – this is located in the topmost part of the brainstem and controls our eye movements and other voluntary movements.[6] If you recall our film clip, when the pilot kept blinking his eyes to look out in the dark skies and adjusting his glasses, his midbrain was called to task.

Hindbrain – you will find the hindbrain right above your spinal cord. This is where the cerebellum is located. It resembles a wrinkled ball of tissue. It is the hindbrain that directs the body’s respiratory and heart rates. It coordinates bodily reflexes and is also responsible for movements you make automatically or by rote. For example, when you play the violin or run a marathon, the cerebellum located in the hindbrain goes to work.

Looking deeper into the brain, we now focus on the cerebrum, which has two hemispheres. As we said earlier, the cerebrum is located in the forebrain.

These hemispheres are separated by a deep dividing line; this division does not prevent the two hemispheres from sending messages to and from each other.

They look similar in appearance but differ in their functions.
Hemispheres of the Brain

Left hemisphere – when an individual utters words, it is the left
hemisphere that is working.

Right hemisphere – when an individual engages in abstract reasoning or logic, it is the right hemisphere that enables him to practice these skills.

The brain and the body send signals to each other and when they do, these signals cross over. This means that the right hemisphere controls the left side of the body, while the left hemisphere controls the right side. Therefore, hen one side of the brain is affected or is hurt, the opposite side of the body is affected. To put it more clearly, if an individual has had a stroke in the right hemisphere of the brain, his left arm and leg are paralyzed.[7]
As we explore our thoughts and how they get processed in the brain, we will need to know about the brain’s other components. Note that each hemisphere is divided into sections – more commonly called lobes. These lobes – frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal - have their own respective functions.

Frontal lobes – there are two frontal lobes located behind the forehead.

When you sit down and make a shopping list, plan an itinerary or argue with your boss, these are the two lobes that enable you to perform these functions.

The frontal lobes are what the Neurological Institute of the NIH calls a “short term storage site”; that is, keeping one idea on standby while you weigh other ideas. The left frontal lobe is where you’ll find Broca’s area, which processes your thoughts into words.
Parietal lobes – remember our airline pilot who loved sushi and kimchi?

When he ate every bite and cleaned out his plate, his parietal lobes were at work. The pilot’s smell, texture and taste for sushi were processed by his parietal lobes and more specifically by the primary sensory areas. These areas are information receptors, especially when the information has to do with temperature, touch and taste. The parietal lobes, however, are not limited to taste and smell, but also process reading and arithmetic functions.

Occipital lobes – these lobes are located at the back of the brain. They receive images that the eyes see and send those images to be stored in the memory. If the occipital lobes are damaged, blindness can occur.

Temporal lobes – these are found in the visual areas of the brain and are located just underneath the parietal and frontal lobes. Are you a fan of Eminem? Do you swoon over Tom Jones when he sings “What’s New Pussycat?” Your temporal lobes are at work. The temporal lobes process information received by the ears; these lobes contribute to memory functions – including anything to do with music, as well as sensations associated with taste, sound, light and touch.

Venturing into the deeper recesses of the brain, we find three distinct components:
Hypothalamus
Thalamus
Hippocampus

The NIH describes these three parts as the “gatekeepers” that lie in between the spinal cord and the hemispheres of the brain. These three elements orchestrate our emotions and the manner in which we respond to such emotions.

Hypothalamus – this serves as the center of vital functions. It drags you out of bed, makes you nervous and your hands clammy when you’re about to break the news to your parents that you failed Physics, and it works every time you’re ecstatic, frustrated or raving mad.

Thalamus – the thalamus is located close to the hypothalamus and acts as a traffic coordinator between data to and from the spinal cord and the cerebrum.

Hippocampus – this component is small in size and yet acts as a warehouse of memories. It’s like the hard disk of your computer. It stores your files and then when you need them, retrieves them for you. It also has nerve cells that come in clusters called basal ganglia, responsible for triggering movement.

No discussion on the brain is complete without mentioning neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers of the brain that carry thoughts back and forth from cell to cell. The health of our brain depends to a significant degree on the proper balance of neurotransmitters. So when people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, it means that there is widespread death of brain cells. The brain is flesh and blood. This is one thing that people have to remember. It is NOT the mind. The brain is the organ and like any organ of the body, it needs nutrition and rest. The mind is WHO we are – the software that carries out the functions of the hardware – the brain.
Brain Neurotransmitters

Acetylcholine – this substance is the principal memory carrier. People with Alzheimer’s show lower levels of acetylcholine. It dictates if our muscles have to contract or make our glands secrete hormones.

GABA – this is gamma-aminobutyric acid and is referred to as a
neurotransmitter that inhibits because it calms down cells. It regulates muscle movements and is an essential part of the visual system. Epileptic and Huntington patients usually take drugs to increase GABA levels in the brain.

Serotonin – this is another inhibitory neurotransmitter that acts on blood vessels and promotes sleep and regulates the body’s temperature. Together with norepinephrine, it keeps individuals in a good mood. It is therefore likely that crankiness in older men and women have a biological basis. Out of 40 million Americans aged sixty five and older, more than six million could be candidates for depression, and most of them consider it as part of the aging process. Dr. Khalsa, however, says that it is possible to overcome shortages of these mood neurotransmitters through nutritional and pharmacological solutions.[8]

Dopamine – another neurotransmitter that influences mood and body reflexes. Examples of low dopamine levels are seen in Parkinson’s patients who suffer from rigid muscles and lose control over their movements. This indicates that dopamine levels have decreased in some segments of the brain.

Scientists have discovered at least 100 neurotransmitters and they all have their individual chemical activities. The above are some of the key neurotransmitters that preserve some of the more important functions of the brain.

In the next Chapter, we’ll talk about how to keep the brain healthy, banishing the myth that it can potentially “disintegrate” with age