https://www.brainbuzzed.com/blog daily 0.75 2020-12-21 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/blog/our-brain-tricks-us-on-risks-during-covid-pandemic monthly 0.5 2020-11-25 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/blog/our-brain-searches-and-sees-patterns-where-none-exist-conspiracies monthly 0.5 2020-12-21 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/home daily 1.0 2020-11-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5f9c3d639a76b91ef8734393/1604075047996/BrainBuzzedCVRF.jpg Home https://www.brainbuzzed.com/about daily 0.75 2020-11-22 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5f9b1d3b1b63e304387d00cd/1604001094980/talk+to+self+28.jpg About Brain science discoveries in the last 20 years have been metamorphic but seldom distilled down to a practical level. The book and this site are dedicated to covering useful and fun ideas about how our minds work. Over the years I’ve collected hundreds of articles and book references. The 39 chapters in the book provide brief, concise encounters. This web site is meant as an overview and sampling of the book and also a space to provide updates and links to references. Please offer me your feedback and suggestions at clutses@outlook.com. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2020-11-27 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5f9eeeb41458eb762c2890d9/1606250397435/Patterns+1.jpg Pattern Problems - Pattern Problems Imagine participating in an experiment. You're shown several sequences of 20 flashing lights colored either green or red. Your job is to predict the color of the next flash of light, and you will receive a score on the accuracy of your predictions. And you will be competing with pigeons. Sample typical sequences: RGRGGGGGRGGGGRGGGGGG; RRGGGGGRGGRGGGGGGGGG. The flashes are random but always with green flashing 80 percent of the time and red just 20 percent of the time. Rats or pigeons, when rewarded for correctly guessing the right color, quickly learned the best strategy: green every time, guaranteeing an 80 percent success rate. But humans didn't do nearly as well. Instead of picking green every time, they got caught up trying to guess the next red flash. On average, they scored only 68 percent instead of locking in the 80 percent by sticking with green. And they often performed worse the longer they tried, because they thought they’d discovered the "pattern" among purely random flashes.[i] Humans are hardwired to search for patterns or causal relationships even when there is no such thing. See the book for more patterns where none exist. On Amazon the whole chapter on patterns is available under “Look Inside.” Hint: Hot hand in pro basketball, reward and punishment, conspiracy theories. [i] Jason Zweig, Your Money and Your Brain, 59. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/introduction daily 0.75 2020-11-02 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5f9ee5a3313a5010f6e232a4/1604253335179/Intro+0.jpg Introduction - Imagine a professional football stadium filled with spaghetti. A lot of pasta! What if all that spaghetti were crammed into the human skull? It would be a rough representation of the myriad electrical pathways and potential connections in our minds. Yet this representation is magnitudes short on scale and complexity. It’s been called the most complex, magnificent entity in the universe. And it fools us and changes in marvelous ways. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/new-page daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5f9f246baa6e763a1b036f75/1606250297683/shotcuts+2.jpg Brain Shortcuts - Try reading the following: I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulacity uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. Tnahks to the phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to rscheearchres at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Despite the words above being absurdly misspelled, chances are you were able to understand the whole thing. That’s because over your years of reading, your brain has developed shortcuts to spare itself from processing every single letter of a word. Our brain creates shortcuts to avoid tedious processing, usually a good thing. Check out this video on selective attention before scrolling down. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/subconscious-assistance daily 0.75 2020-11-27 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fa0809a3a4f5c06aad928f8/1604354289827/subcon+3.jpg Subconscious Assistance - Subconscious Assistance Close your eyes and imagine driving down the road and making a lane change, one lane to the right. Take your time and go through the actual motions. Easily done, right? If you are like most people you held the wheel straight, then turned it slightly right for a moment, and then straightened it back out. Simple. The problem is, if you did the exercise the way most people do, you piloted a course right off the road onto the sidewalk! The correct motion is banking slightly right and then back through the center to the left, the same distance you went right, and then finally straightening out.[i] If you don't believe it, go for a drive and test it. Our minds have an autopilot much more suited for some tasks than the conscious mind. [i] David Eagleman, "Secret Life of the Mind," Discover, September, 2011, 50. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/new-page-4 daily 0.75 2020-11-03 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fa194a0d33636636b9b0091/1604424878369/memory+13.jpg Reliability of Memory - Reliability of Memory In 1992 a cargo plane crashed into an Amsterdam apartment building. Less than a year later, 55 percent of the Dutch population recalled watching TV and seeing the plane hit the building, with many able to recall specifics such as the angle of descent or whether the plane was on fire before crashing. But there was a problem. The event was never caught on video! The mass recollection had been pieced together from descriptions and pictures of the event.[i] Our memories are made from bits and scraps reconstructed whenever a recollection takes place. That means each recollection from the past may trigger the addition of new details, shading of the facts, or even pruning of a few key facts. And we don't realize we’re doing so.[ii] It's not difficult to implant a false memory. Psychologist Elizabeth Loftus at the University of Washington conducted an experiment during which she gave volunteers a booklet narrating three true stories from each volunteer's childhood plus an added false story describing being lost in the mall at age five. When asked later to write down all they could remember about the events, 25 percent were sure all four events were real![iii] [i] Kathleen McGowan, "How Much of Your Memory Is True?" Discover Magazine, August 3, 2009, accessed May 17, 2017, http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jul-aug/03-how-much-of-your-memory-is-true [ii] Ibid. [iii] Ibid. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/new-page-5 daily 0.75 2020-11-22 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbad7f13e9b65302dc23ff1/1606081140599/Emotion+risk+17.jpg Emotions and Risk - Emotions & Risk In a simple experiment, volunteers were told to imagine being called to the doctor's office for an urgent medical matter. Another group was not burdened with imagining such a stressful event. Both groups were then asked to pick between a relatively safe 60 percent chance of winning five dollars or a riskier 30 percent chance of winning ten dollars. The anxiety-induced people were much more likely to take the safe bet.[i] This simple experiment illustrates how we fail to understand that our emotional response from one event can affect our ability to make decisions regarding an unrelated event. The anxiety factor can be even more complex. In another study, men were asked to think of either three or eight factors increasing their chances of heart disease. Those who named only three factors rated their overall risk of heart disease higher than those who were forced to think of eight. Experimenters concluded that men forced to think of eight had to work much harder. (Try coming up with eight yourself!) They subconsciously thought, If it's that hard to think of eight reasons, my risk must not be that great! Conversely, those who had to think of only three found the short list easier to recall, making the risk seem more real.[ii] Herein we find a serious problem with assessing risk: the easier to call to mind, the more real the risk seems. This "ease to call to mind" is influenced by other factors. "Recency," as discussed earlier, is one. But even more powerful is how vivid the event seems. For example, people pay twice as much for hospitalization insurance for a specific disease than for a policy that covers any medical issue. "Any issue" is vague but "cancer" is vivid.[iii] Likewise, people fear an attack, clear the beach, and even stay away from the ocean altogether at the slightest mention of, "Shark!" But the odds of being killed in a shark attack are 1 in 3,943,110! Compare that to the odds of dying in a motor vehicle accident: 1 in 88! But we don't think twice about climbing into our cars every day. Thanks to movies like Jaws we can envision those ferocious shark teeth. We can easily recall the image and trigger an anxious response, coloring our perception of probability. [i] Jason Zweig, Your Money and Your Brain, 130. [ii] Ibid., 131. [iii] Ibid., 157. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/illusion-of-stories daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbaf4560f82787f6653ef1e/1606087820012/iStock-505597633.jpg Illusion of Stories - The Illusion of Stories Imagine you are considering buying a new car and check Consumer Reports to find a highly reliable choice. But then you go to a party and find a friend bought the very same vehicle and complains he takes it to the repair shop often. He says, "nothing but trouble." Will you buy that car? If you’re like most people, you won't. The account from your friend will have more bearing on your decision than the statistics. But should it? Your friend is a sample of one, while the Consumer Reports data are based on large numbers of vehicles. There is variance in everything, and even the best-made cars have an occasional "lemon." It could be that your friend got one of these rare lemons, or maybe he or she hasn’t kept up with the recommended maintenance. The point is, by not buying the car you'd be basing your decision on one person’s narrative, not reliable statistical data. But excluding the story from your decision is difficult. Our fondness for stories is hardwired in us. In the history of humankind, only recently have we been able to record and store accessible facts for the knowledge we need. Prior to such capabilities, we passed our history and knowledge from generation to generation by telling stories. We all love a good story. We have an evolved penchant for paying close attention to them.[ii] But, our preference for stories or anecdotal evidence over facts and figures can be a problem. It intertwines with our "ease to call to mind" issue. Stories are much easier to remember than statistics. See the book for more instances on how stories unduly influence our perspectives on such things as crime, violence, and public policy. [ii] Thomas Kida, Don't Believe Everything You Think, 17. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/neuroplasticity daily 0.75 2020-11-27 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbbfc77ae796c5cf41f22e0/1606155405463/neuroplasicity+19.jpg Neuroplasticity - Neuroplasticity Until the end of the twentieth-century, prevailing theories held that, though young children generated new brain cells, the adult human brain was hardwired after early formative years. In other words, upon reaching adulthood, we would develop all the brain cells we would get, and those cells were genetically coded to do certain tasks. Scientists also knew connections (synapses) between brain cells (neurons) could change and that learning resulted from changing these connections (sprouting dendrites) or strengthening them. The accepted theory of "cells that fire together wire together," drove these concepts. In other words, the neurons that fired together in a chain changed in such a way that made it more likely that firing one would fire the other. Thus, "wired together.” And this was the extent of what scientists thought the brain could do. Now we know differently. "Neuroplasticity" is well beyond this retail variety of synaptic connection or strengthening. We’re talking about wholesale changes previously deemed impossible. The brain is capable of reorganizing itself. Go to tabs on cortical expansion, reorganization, and neurogenesis for more. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/new-page-35 daily 0.75 2020-11-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbc1e7e79ca927ce63c9f69/1606164115481/race+for+cort+exp+20.jpg Cortical Expansion - Cortical Expansion Noted neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone of the Harvard Medical School conducted a deceptively simple experiment. He instructed volunteers to learn a five-finger piano exercise and try to play it as fluidly as possible while keeping up to a metronome’s constant sixty beats per minute. They were asked to practice two hours a day, every day, for five days. Then it was test time. Only this was not the proficiency test to which Harvard medical students were accustomed. Over the course of the five days, subjects underwent "transcranial-magnetic-stimulation" (TMS) testing to infer functions of neurons in specific locations in the brain. Scientists tested every day after practice to map how much of each volunteer's cortex controlled finger movements. The part of the cortex dedicated to these finger movements expanded and “took over” surrounding areas of the brain “like dandelions on a suburban lawn,” a result well beyond just strengthening connections.[i] The brains of these students were recruiting new neurons for the musical task at hand, neurons presumably previously dedicated to other, less-often-used functions. Other studies have confirmed the results—providing proof that greater use of muscles causes more cortex tissue to be devoted to that specific task. This expansion of recruited cortex was contrary to prior genetic coded disposition theory. But it wasn't difficult to imagine, nor was it especially surprising. But the next step was. Pascual-Leone and his team continued the study but added a group that merely thought about the piano exercise. They imagined their fingers playing the piano part while keeping their hands still. Results were unexpected, to say the least: Volunteers who only mentally practiced recorded similar physical reorganization of their cortex. Let's restate that. Volunteers who did zero physical rehearsing, and only mentally imagined the practice, had physical reorganization of their cortex similar to participants who practiced physically! This concept is used extensively today by athletes, musicians, and even people giving speeches. When you can't practice physically, a mental rehearsal can still be of great benefit. [i] Sharon Begley, "How the Brain Rewires Itself," Time Magazine, January 29, 2007, 73. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/cortical-reorganization daily 0.75 2020-11-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbc203700cb530bdf00b466/1606164562420/cortical+reorg+21.jpg Cortical Reorganization - Cortical Reorganization Scientists used to believe that certain clusters of neurons would process signals from your nose and other clusters of neurons would process signals from your fingers, and they’d do nothing else until the day you died. If you severed the nerve in your finger, the associated brain cluster should have "gone dark." Michael Merzenich, PhD, and professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco, questioned these theories. In well-intended but controversial research, he severed the finger nerves of laboratory monkeys. Several months afterward, he found the part of the cortex that originally responded to the finger was now responding to signals from other parts of the hand![i] Likewise, Edward Taub, PhD and behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, searched for solutions for stroke victims. He wondered if sensory feedback was necessary to move a limb. To find out, he surgically removed the sensory nerve from one or both arms of lab monkeys to stop all sensation from their limb(s). But before the experiment was finished, animal rights activists rescued the monkeys and removed them from the experiment. However, twelve years later, scientists revisited the project. Several of the monkeys were to be euthanized to spare them further suffering. Aware of the original purpose of the experiment, the scientists persuaded authorities to allow a final examination of the monkeys’ brains to determine what happened to the “arm” region of the brain after having no sensation for years. It wasn’t silent. It had changed jobs. It now processed signals from the face instead. And the region now responsible for receiving sensations from the face had grown 10 to 14 square millimeters, in what scientists described as “a massive cortical reorganization.”[ii] The same phenomenon has been detected in humans. People blind from birth who become proficient in Braille provide evidence that the visual cortex can switch jobs to process tactile signals from the fingers. [i] Sharon Begley, Train Your Mind and Change Your Brain, (New York: Balantine Books, 2008), 33. [ii] Richard Davidson with Sharon Begley, The Emotional Life of Your Brain (New York: PLUME, 2013), 169. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/neurogenesis daily 0.75 2020-11-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbc22a79e1763697e0bc3e5/1606165365469/Neurogen+22.jpg Neurogenesis - Neurogenesis So what about new brain cells? Do we really have all we are going to get by the time we're an adult? And if they aren’t static, how does memory stay in place? How do we remember how to ride a bicycle if new cells are “tagged in” like wrestlers in a wrestling match? Scientists knew neurons didn't divide, so they concluded new brain cell development was impossible. And there were other reasons. Considering the complexity of the brain, they couldn't imagine how new brain cells would assimilate. Expecting them to contribute “made as much sense as expecting a box of wires to improve an already running supercomputer.”[i] Animal studies were the first indications. In 1997 Fred Gage, Adler Professor in the Laboratory of Genetics at the Salk institute, conducted an experiment with lab mice using an enriched environment with steps, tunnels, wheels, toys, and lots of other mice. Other mice were placed in standard cages. Compared to the standard cages, the enriched environment triggered the development of new neurons to the tune of 15 percent (from 270,000 neurons in the hippocampus to 317,000). It didn’t matter how old the mice were. Senior citizen mice experienced even bigger boosts than the younger ones. The enriched environment, or something in it, was triggering the development of new brain cells, a process called “neurogenesis.”[ii] [i] Ibid., 54. [ii] Ibid., 58. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/directed-neuroplasticity daily 0.75 2020-11-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbc262a7565a868c9d523e1/1606166162190/Directed+neur+24.jpg Directed Neuroplasticity - Directed Neuroplasticity Educators are experimenting. Seventh graders taught principles of neuroplasticity performed better on achievement tests than their peers.[i] Just knowing that your brain can change can be empowering.[ii] Students found the revelations liberating and believed they could get smarter through study and practice. Norman Doidge, author of The Brain That Changes Itself, says, "Everything to do with human training and education has to be re-examined in light of neuroplasticity."[iii] Richard Davidson pioneered another more direct experiment. He developed a "Kindness Curriculum" (KC) for preschoolers and kindergarteners that included age-appropriate mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation. Children were given stickers and two envelopes: one for themselves and one with a picture of a sick child. They were told they could keep as many stickers as they wanted or they could also give some to the sick child. Over the course of the year, children in the KC group maintained initial levels of giving, while the control group became more selfish.[iv] In addition, compared to controls, the KC group developed significant gains in self-control, as measured by delayed gratification. Based on reports from teachers, they also ranked higher in learning, health, and social/emotional capacity compared to their peers. But more significantly, they also displayed more pro-social behavior and altruism. In summary, much can be done to direct our brain to rewire itself. Davidson's book, The Emotional Life of Your Brain, is an excellent source for methods to induce directed neuroplasticity. He explains development of emotional styles as well as the acquired skill of happiness. It's a highly recommended read. [i] Richard E. Nesbitt, "Education Is All in Your Mind," New York Times, February 7, 2009, accessed November 26, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion.08misbett.html [ii] Donna Wilson, "Engaging Brains: How to Enhance Learning by Teaching Kids About Neuroplasticity," Edutopia, February 11, 2014, Accessed December 11, 2017, https://Edutopia.org/blog/neuroplasticity-engage-brains-enhance-learning-donna-wilson. [iii] Peter Barnes, "What Is Neuroplasticity & How Does It Impact Education." The Learning Success Blog, September 5, 2016, accessed December 11, 2017, blog.learnfasthq.com/what-is-neuroplasticity-&-how-does-it-impact-education-infographic. [iv] Lisa Flook and Laura Pinger, "Lessons from Creating a Kindness Curriculum," Center for Healthy Minds, Undated, accessed September 19,2020, https://centerhelathyminds.org/join-the-movement/lessons-from-creating-a-kindness-curriculum https://www.brainbuzzed.com/science-of-happiness daily 0.75 2020-11-23 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbc298eea22130b33e8ae48/1606166948612/science+of+hap+37.jpg Science of Happiness - Science of Happinesss Richard Davidson calls happiness “a kind of a placeholder for a constellation of positive emotional states . . . associated with an active embracing of the world. . . . ”[i] But it is not just an indefinite, ambiguous feeling. Davidson says it’s a physical state of the brain, one that can be induced deliberately.[ii] Scientifically speaking, that physical state is characterized by increased activity and circuitry in the left prefrontal cortex, as identified by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalograms.[iii] In fact, some people are genetically predisposed to happiness by virtue of busy prefrontal cortexes. Research on infants has provided confirmation. Davidson measured left prefrontal cortex activity in babies less than a year old with their mothers present, and then again when their mothers briefly left the room. Some babies cried hysterically the minute the mother left. Others were more resilient. The babies with the higher activity in the left prefrontal cortex were the ones who didn’t cry.[iv] As many parents can attest, some babies are just born to be happy. But neuroscientists also know, as we learned in the chapter on neuroplasticity, the brain is highly plastic. The brain rewires itself in response to experiences, and Davidson’s research has shown just how plastic it can be. His study of Buddhist monks in a meditative state found activity in the prefrontal cortex shot up at a dramatic rate, a rate he had never seen before. Science continues to delve into the physical underpinnings of the state of happiness, confirming that happiness is a trait or state that can be physically measured and learned. A happy brain can also have a powerful physical influence over the rest of the body. People who score on the upper ends of psychological tests for happiness develop about 50 percent more antibodies than average in response to flu vaccines.[v] Other researchers have found related mental states such as hopefulness, optimism, and contentment “appear to reduce the risk or limit severity of cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease, diabetes, hypertension, colds, and upper respiratory infections as well.”[vi] [i] Michael D. Lemonick, “The Biology of Joy,” Time, January 9, 2005, accessed September 20, 2020, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015863,00.html [ii] Ibid. [iii] Ibid. [iv] Ibid. [v] Ibid. [vi] Ibid. [i] Ryan J. Foley, "Scientist Inspired by Dalai Lama Studies Happiness," The Oklahoman, May 14, 2010, accessed January 29, 2018, www.newsok/article/feed/158821 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/the-primacy-of-attention daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbd72af85b854308599d326/1606251208606/Attention+29.jpg The Primacy of Attention - Primacy of Attention Pay attention. We hear the words all the time. We know it's essential to learning. But how does it work? Monkeys were wired to a device that made them tap their fingers one hundred minutes a day while listening to sounds on headphones. Some were rewarded with a sip of juice for responding to a change in the tapping rhythm. Others received the same reward for responding to a change in the sound. Every monkey had the same experience. The only difference was the impetus for the reward: attention to the sound versus attention to the physical tapping. Results were compelling. Monkeys conditioned to pay attention to the physical tapping experienced an increase in the somatosensory (body movement) part of their cortex, but their auditory cortex stayed the same. The inverse was true for monkeys conditioned to pay attention to the sounds.[i] So attention is vital not only for learning but also for neuroplasticity. From a learning perspective this is nothing new. We've all experienced the boring teacher or the topic incapable of capturing our attention. But remember learning is primarily considered the strengthening of connections or making new connections. This experiment showed that expansion of physical cortex also depended on attention. Attention is a big deal for our brain. It's both for learning and expanding cortical real estate. So how do we deal with attention or lack thereof? “Only in recent years has Western psychiatry recognized attention-deficit disorder, but the meditative-contemplative traditions have maintained for thousands of years that we all suffer a kind of ADD and just don’t recognize it,” says Roger Walsh, a professor of psychiatry, philosophy, and anthropology at the University of California at Irvine.[ii] Two thousand five hundred years ago the Buddha taught his followers to think of their mind as filled with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention. Meditation was meant to silence the monkeys. Can meditation in the vein of the Buddhist teachings help people diagnosed with ADD? William Stixrud, PhD and clinical neuropsychologist, thinks it can.[iii] Stixrud believes Ritalin, the typical drug used to treat ADHD, though helpful, is an imperfect treatment. Very few kids function optimally on it. Stixrud and Sarina Grosswald, an educator, studied Transcendental Meditation for ADHD children in a school setting. The kids meditated for ten minutes twice a day. For these kids with ADHD an obvious question should be asked: "If kids have a problem focusing, how can they meditate?" Well, Transcendental Meditation, with roots in ancient Hindu practices, claims to be the exact opposite of focusing, using the natural tendency of the mind. See the appendix on meditation for more info. For now, let's just accept that they meditated. Stixrud and Grosswald found the kids who meditated had 45 to 50 percent reductions in stress, anxiety, and depression. They also had significant improvements in organizational skills, memory, strategizing, mental flexibility, attention, and impulsivity.[iv] Another two-year study showed children practicing Transcendental Meditation made significant gains on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills, a nationally administered test to measure student progress in reading, science, math, language arts, and social studies Some schools are considering including meditation in daily routines, notably Roxbury Charter high and several other schools in Massachusetts.[v][vi] As noted earlier, “meditating increases the thickness of the cortex in the areas of the brain dealing with attention and sensory processing.”[vii] It can’t hurt to have more brain real estate devoted to attention. In fact, meditation could be one drug-free tool for kids with ADHD and even boost the performance of other children. Studies have shown: · Three thousand children in San Francisco Unified School District practiced Transcendental Mediation and made dramatic improvement in math test scores and overall academic performance.[viii] The same study also found a decrease in student suspensions, expulsions, and dropout rates. · A study at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte suggested meditation didn’t have to be intensive to have an effect. Tests showed students could improve cognitive skills after just four days of meditation for twenty minutes per day. On one test, which measured sustained attention, meditating students did ten times better than a control group.[ix] · Another study found as little as two weeks of mindfulness practice produced a significant boost in GRE scores.[x] Similar results are conceivable for adults who need their concentration at work. Sixty adults participated in a study allowing them to attend a ninety-day meditation retreat, a long time for a retreat. Half could attend the ninety-day retreat right away, while the rest had to wait ninety days. The delay ensured results weren’t related to just wanting to learn to meditate. Testing was done before, during, and after the intensive retreat. All were asked to watch a series of lines flashed on a screen and click on a button when one line was shorter than the other—in other words, a really boring test. Detecting differences required intense focus. Those who meditated were more likely to see increasingly small differences in line length, and their abilities increased as their meditative training progressed. When they saw the differences, they didn’t react faster than the control group, but they were more accurate. This would suggest that meditation helped with automatic processing of the visual signal, but not with reaction time.[xi] Another measure associated with attention is called "attentional blink." A sample experiment will explain. Two pictures of dogs, a Scottish Terrier and a St. Bernard were embedded in a twenty-picture series of cats, each photo flashing in front of participants for a brief half second. Most people didn't see the second dog. Their attention "blinked." Scientists characterize this phenomenon as a misallocation of attention, thought to be a fixed property of the nervous system. Photos were flashing too fast for the brain to detect the second stimulus. But another study showed that subjects who had meditated could improve the recognition rate for the second stimulus. Experienced and novice meditators were given attentional blink tests with two numbers embedded in a series of letters. The novice meditators tended to grasp the first number and hang onto it, thereby missing the second. The more experienced meditators didn't invest as much attention in the first number, as if letting go. This "release" resulted in better recognition of the second number. So, apparently, the ability to pay attention is not fixed, but a trainable skill.[xii] Video games present an interesting alternative as well. Richard Davidson's group developed a video game called Tenacity to train focused attention. They found, "increased connectivity between the brain's executive center in the prefrontal cortex and the circuitry for focused attention. In other tests, the players were also better able to focus on someone's facial expression and ignore distractions—signs of increased empathy."[xiii] However, the verdict is still out on video games in general. Few have undergone stringent testing. Some have been found to improve performance in the game itself but not necessarily to generalize to other tasks. But the potential seems to be there for games written for specific attention tasks. So how else can we invoke attention benefits? Learn something new. Activities we've practiced for a long time have minimal impact. But when we learn something new, we have to pay attention. Learning a foreign language or taking up ballroom dancing are much more likely to improve brain processing speed, strengthen synapses, and create functional networks.[xiv] "Learning something new" could also apply to activities in which we are already engaged. But instead of doing the same old thing, we could get coaching, and learn to do it better. For instance, those of us who play bridge could take lessons to play differently and/or more effectively. Golfers, instead of hacking at the ball the same way (and yielding similar results), could hire a pro to learn a better swing. It would force us to pay attention, benefiting our circuitry. In summary, the concept of attention is rich and complex. Science has found new possibilities beyond reward, high interest, and medication to help trigger attention benefits. Research will undoubtedly continue for this important dimension of our mind. [i] Ibid., 158–159. [ii] Joel Stein, “Just Say Ohm,” 54. [iii] “Research Summary: ADHD Meditation,” ABC7 KGO-TV/DT, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, accessed June 18, 2006, http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=edell&id=4198564 [iv] Ibid. [v] Ibid. [vi] “Eastern Philosophy Gains Acceptance In Bay State,” The Boston Channel.com, accessed June 18, 2006, http://www.thebostonchannel.com/print/9322474/detail.html [vii] Ibid. [viii] Liz Neporent, “Meditation Helps Kids Chill Out, Reduce Impulsivity,” May 21, 2013, accessed February 6, 2017, gma.yahoo.com/meditation-helos-kids-chill-reduce-impulsiveness-021108463-abc-news-topstories.html [ix] John Cloud, “Losing Focus? Studies Say Meditation May Help,” Time.com, August 6, 2010, accessed February 6, 2017, http://www.sott.net/article/213363-Losing-Focus-Studies-Say-Meditation-May-Help [x] Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson, Altered Traits, 2017, Avery: New York, 251. [xi] John Cloud, “Losing Focus? Studies Say Meditation May Help,” Time.com, August 6, 2010, accessed February 6, 2017, http://www.sott.net/article/213363-Losing-Focus-Studies-Say-Meditation-May-Help [xii] Sandra Blakeslee, "Study Suggests Meditation Can Help Train Attention," New York Times, May 8, 2007, accessed 10-17-2017, http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/NYT_Med_0507.html [xiii] Daniel Goleman & Richard Davidson, Altered Traits, 2017, 282. [xiv] Ibid. https://www.brainbuzzed.com/meditation daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/neurotheology-religion daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/religion-discussion daily 0.75 2020-11-24 https://www.brainbuzzed.com/buy-book-redirect daily 0.75 2020-11-25 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5eef745a30e2422999f2bdb8/t/5fbea10be6d49a06bb6d92a2/1606328792369/BrainBuzzedCVRF.jpg buy book redirect The book has just been uploaded to Amazon and should be available in a few days. Please check back. In the meantime please browse the site for excerpts or check the blog for news or updates.