Exercise boostsall kinds ofbrainpowerIn 18 studies of older adults, the exercise group outperformed the couch-potato controls in a host of tasks useful for the boardroom and classroom.How to read this chart: Click "Footnotes."
There's a direct linkAmong 27-year-olds, a 12-week exercise program was begun. Brain function rose. Exercise was stopped. Brain function fell.
Aerobics vs. strength trainingAerobic exercise boosts "executive function," things like problem-solving, planning and attentional tasks. Studies on toning alone showed little benefit there. But combining the two was best.
Not all of the brain benefitsStudies of visual skill, processing speed and other non-executive functions show that the cognitive benefits of exercise are uneven.
But the benefitscan last a lifetimeActive people have half the risk of Alzheimer's of sedentary people. It's even less for general dementia.
It starts with foodOur bodies turn food into glucose for energy. Oxygen absorbs the toxic electrons left behind. The brain is a pig when it comes to energy: It needs a lot of glucose and a lot of oxygen.
Like a networkofroadsBlood vessels are like roads providing access to the energy and oxygen. Exercise improves the system. Like a highway vs. a dirt road, you can get much farther, much faster, the more blood vessels you have.
vessels are stimulated to create a powerful molecule called nitric oxide. As blood flow improves, the body makes new blood vessels, which penetrate deeper and deeper into the body's tissues. Now the brain has better access to energy and oxygen. That's why it works better.
Class rooms and cubicles around sitting for 8 hours
How does the brain process information? It's not what you'd expect. And where my brain stores information on, say, grammar rules is different from where yours stores it.
How our brains differNeurons swell, sway and split as the brain learns. Any experience you have creates new wiring in your brain. And no two people have the exact same experiences. These are our "smaller routes," whereas larger brain structures such as the hippocampus are our "freeways."
Shape processingThe brain doesn't perceive a scene as a whole. If you look at a complex picture, the brain extracts the horizontal lines from the circles, etc., and stores them in separate places. Likewise, each color in a scene is processed in a different part of the brain. When you look at a moving object, one part of your brain registers the object. Another registers the fact that it is moving. Others process speed and depth.
The binding problemThe elements are mysteriously combined again so you perceive the scene as a whole. Scientists call it "the binding problem."
Mapping the brainNeurosurgeon George Ojemann tracked where language elements were stored in his patients' brains -- and few were the same. Every brain is wired differently.Ojemann's process is called "electrical stimulation mapping." This shows the combined brain maps of 117 patients.
Why do we sleep? It may be so that we can learn. The brain replays information learned during the day hundreds of time while we saw logs. You'd be more productive if you took an afternoon nap, too
Competing drives in your brain fight to keep you awake and keep you asleep. The longer one wins, the more likely it is to surrender to the other.
At the point where these two drives cross (the timing of which depends on factors including chronotype, nutrition and temperature), the brain really wants to take a nap. It's deadly to give a lecture. More car accidents happen. Memory, attention and problem-solving suffer.
You probably ignore that drowsy afternoon feeling and reach for another cup of coffee. But look what happens if you don't. Studies such as this one (separate from the NASA study) show reaching the first REM stage of slow-wave sleep (SWS) is what does it.
Brain-wave activity is high during the five stages of REM sleep. We're now realizing this deep sleep is critical for learning. The first clues came from a study in which rats learned a maze. When they were woken up during REM sleep, they had to relearn the maze in the morning.
"Sleeping on it" makes for better problem-solving, studies show. And performance tanks with lack of sleep, as happened in this memory test.
Plenty of studies show that the brain is incapable of multitasking when it comes to paying attention. These charts also illustrate what it is we pay attention to -- patterns, emotions -- and which systems in the brain are involved.
After an amount of time disappointing to teachers and PowerPoint presenters everywhere, audience attention drops precipitously. You must do something emotionally relevant at each 10-minute mark to regain attention
At first it's a jumble of letters. But look long enough and your brain begins picking out pieces it has seen before.Why? The brain pays attention to patterns. Remembering something we've seen before (like, say, quicksand) is a useful evolutionary trait.
At first it's a jumble of letters. But look long enough and your brain begins picking out pieces it has seen before.Why? The brain pays attention to patterns. Remembering something we've seen before (like, say, quicksand) is a useful evolutionary trait.
Your work day probably looks like the top graph -- one task interrupted by many small ones. You think you're multitasking, but that's actually impossible for the brain to do in this situation. You're task-switching.Click "Next" to find out why that's bad.
You make three times more errors on a task when interrupted. These studies involved tasks related to both numbers (left) and letters (right).
It takes you four times longer to complete a task when it's interrupted.
Three systems in the brain allow us to pay attention, according to scientist Michael Posner. They scan the environment, allow us to orient ourselves toward a stimulus (turn our head, look, etc.) and control what we do next.
It also takes longer for cell-phone drivers to begin braking.
In collisions, reaction time and following distance, drivers on cell phones help show that the brain cannot multitask.
