“Dreams can help with learning” – The importance of Theta…

Research has shown that people who dream about a task perform it better on waking compared to those who do not dream about the task. (BBC News)

This reinforces the knowledge shared in our brain training courses, where the importance of theta brainwave activity in learning is discussed.  For optimal functioning, new information is received in a high-alpha state.  That is then memorised or integrated in a theta state.  The theta brainwave is an important brainwave for a healthy sleep cycle, as well as delta.

During our training courses, like the Mind Maximiser,  you learn how to access this state by increasing the amplitude of the theta brainwave at will. For anyone wishing to learn information at an accelerated rate, it is essential to be able to control the levels of high-alpha and theta brainwaves.  Some people talk about the “super-learning state”.   Click Here To Continue Reading…→

“Brain Training” games don’t work

At last there is the evidence that brain training games don’t boost brain power. (BBC report)

When doing radio interviews, the most common question I am asked is how good are these electronic games recently promoted to improve brain function.  My reply is always the same…doing lots of sudoku puzzles simply makes you good at doing sudoku.  There is no wider neurological benefit which can be applied to other tasks.

If you want to train your brain, you need to Click Here To Continue Reading…→

Can you multi-task? Are women better than men?

French scientists have researched the brain’s ability to multi-task.  The reported research suggests that the brain can do two things and only two things simultaneously. And more tasks and our brains start making irrational decisions.

This backs up the training at The Brain Training Company where people are taught that their brain’s like to perform two functions and they learn to control that process for optimal performance.

It is interesting that the brain imaging showed that the primary task is controlled by the left frontal lobe and the secondary task is help by the right frontal lobe.  The brain switches the focus between the two hemispheres during the tasks.

It is known that women have a larger corpus callosum, the part of the brain connecting the two hemispheres, with more neural pathways.  So women are hard wired to have a better connection between the two sides.  It has been hypothesised that this maybe why women are generally better at multitasking than men.

This research would seem to back this up, as women can switch between the two tasks in the two side more easily.  Men are better at focusing on a single task, in general.  Someone once said to me that this comes from our hunter-gatherer evolution – men go and hunt for food, women manage the tasks at home.

Exercise Builds Brain Volume in Schizophrenia

From MedPage Today:

Three months of aerobic exercise significantly increased the volume of the hippocampus in patients with chronic schizophrenia, researchers said.

The increase was accompanied by “modest” increases in short-term memory and markers of neuron production, according to Frank-Gerald Pajonk, MD, of Dr K. Fontheim’s Hospital for Mental Health in Liebenburg, Germany, and colleagues.

But it’s too early to say whether incorporating aerobic exercise into treatment programs might reduce the disability associated with schizophrenia, the researchers said in the February Archives of General Psychiatry.

Among schizophrenics, the hippocampus, which plays important roles in memory and spatial navigation, is known to be reduced in volume, Pajonk and colleagues noted.

Unlike other forms of psychosis, they added in the journal, schizophrenia is characterized by persistent disability, perhaps because the production of new neurons is impaired.

As well, they noted, in healthy humans it has been shown that exercise stimulates the production of new neurons.

For those reasons, they speculated that aerobic exercise might increase the volume of the hippocampus in people with chronic schizophrenia, perhaps leading to clinical benefits.

Full, original report here

Theta brainwaves essential for memory

From Reuters:

“Scientists find how relaxed minds remember better.

Stronger and more lasting memories are likely to be formed when a person is relaxed and the memory-related neurons in the brain fire in sync with certain brain waves, scientists said on Wednesday….

…Synchronization in the brain is influenced by “theta waves” which are associated with relaxation, daydreaming and drowsiness, but also with learning and memory formation, the scientists explained in the study in the journal Nature.”

Accessing the theta brainwave is an integral part of the memory training I provide.  Memory techniques on their own are not enough. During both the memorisation and recall process, you need to increase theta brainwave activity and get both hemispheres balanced.

This research reinforces that The Brain Training Company is teaching cutting edge techniques.

You can only develop a really powerful memory with integrated brainwave training.  See the popular Mind Maximiser training course for more information on this subject.  Here you learn the techniques of memory and how to control your brainwave activity.

Have you tried a memory  training system or attended a course?  Did you learn how to access the theta state on demand and have this shown to you on an EEG system?

On a separate yet related matter, did you know that you need to be able to access a high-alpha state for speed reading?  So for effective learning skills, it is critical to be able to shift between the high-alpha and theta brainwave states (as well as other elements taught in the training course).

What happens in an actor’s brain?

This is a fascinating article from the BBC.  It looks at what an actor’s brain is doing during a performance.

——

By Nick Higham
Today programme

Original article here with additional video and images.

For an actor, the performance conditions weren’t exactly ideal: flat on her back in a large machine, under strict instructions to lie as still as possible, speaking in short bursts interspersed with the shrill sound of a magnetic resonance imaging scanner.

But last week Fiona Shaw, one of Britain’s leading actresses – who has in her time played everything from the tragic heroine Medea to Shakespeare’s Richard II – volunteered in the cause of science to spend an hour having her brain scanned while “acting”.

Professor Sophie Scott of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London wanted to know what happens physically in an actor’s head when they pretend to be someone else.

She hoped that scanning Fiona’s brain in action would be able to tell us.

Click Here To Continue Reading…→

Brain Training – saves money and you live longer…

The value of brain training is becoming increasingly black and white – you save money and live longer.  This month I have written two separate comments on recent research backing up the value of quality brain training.  However here I want to promote that the two are intrinsicly linked. Brain training in a corporate environment can save companies billions of dollars / pounds each year.  High quality brain training courses for an individual can mean you have more chance of living longer…

Facts:

• Stress related illness cost the UK £28 billion each year
• This is a 1/4 of the UK’s sick bill
• More than 13 million working days a year are lost in the UK because of work related stress
• Stress is thought to contribute to coronary heart disease (CHD)
• More than $475 billion is spent annually in the USA treating CHD
• Meditation, or relaxing the brain, can reduce number of heart attacks and stroke by 47%

Brainwave training is a simple and cost effective way assist with these issues.

Click Here To Continue Reading…→

2009 World Memory Championships – TV coverage

Channel 4 News:

CBS Network:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

2009 World Memory Championships – the result

The 2009 World Memory Championships have finished.  It was an exciting three days of competition, with some new world records being set and great performances from many new names.  Here are the results:

1 Ben Pridmore
2 Johannes Mallow
3 Simon Reinhard
4 Dr. Gunther Karsten
5 Wang Feng
6 Su Ruiqiao
7 Cornelia Beddies
8 Boris Konrad
9 Guo Chuanwei
10 Yuan Wenkui

Congratulations to Ben Pridmore for successfully defending his 2008 title.  Dorothea Seitz is the Junior World Champion.  It has been announced that next year the World Memory Championships will be held in China.

Interview with World Memory Champion

The current World Memory Champion, Ben Pridmore, is interviewed as he attempts to retain his title at the 2009 World Memory Championships.

To follow all of the posts related to the 2009 World Memory Championships, please click on this tag link link I have created to group all the posts together:

http://www.thebraintrainingcompany.com/tag/wmc2009/

If you would like to train your memory, then the Mind Maximizer course is for you.

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