Memory Maximizers: Neurobic Exercises; How to Boost Intellectual Capacity
These Neurobic Exercises Can Give Your Brain a Workout
Challenging mental tasks called neurobic exercises are intended to stimulate the production of natural brain growth factors and activate new brain circuits by changing normal patterns or routines and engaging the senses in novel ways. You’ll find these examples demanding and fun—or think up some of your own.
- Read a book upside down.
- Perform simple tasks with your eyes closed, using your sense of touch.
- Use your opposite hand to eat, brush your teeth or copy a poem.
- Spend an afternoon without talking. See if you can share a meal and communicate without speech.
- Try to identify the spices in your spice rack with your eyes closed.
- Listen to an unfamiliar piece of music while taking a scented bath.
- Take a new route to the bank, or shop in a different part of town.
Learning to Think Strategically Can Boost Intellectual Capacity
A paper published in the April 2014 issue of Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience suggests that a form of brain training called gist reasoning training is highly successful in strengthening cognitive performance. Rather than attempting to improve cognitive functions such as speed of information processing or memory, or learning isolated new skills, gist training focuses on broader thinking strategies intended to help participants learn to synthesize information and discard counterproductive habits that impair brain performance. The training focuses on three cognitive strategies: strategic attention, integrated reasoning, and innovation.
In several studies, participants including healthy older adults and older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) took part in eight to 12 training sessions lasting 45 minutes to an hour over a period of one or two months. Initially, participants were encouraged to filter out competing information and focus only on essential components in what they were reading.
As they advanced, the study participants learned to interpret the information they read, find common themes, or develop generalized statements about the subject matter. Throughout the duration of the study, participants were encouraged to integrate these strategies and use them whenever they engaged in mental activities both in the training sessions and outside of training. Assessment of study participants before and after training showed that they had made significant gains in abstracting, reasoning, and innovating, the researchers reported. They also improved in memory for facts, planning and problem solving.
“What’s exciting about this work is that in randomized trials comparing gist reasoning training to memory training, we found that it was not learning new information that engaged widespread brain networks and elevated cognitive performance, but rather actually deeper processing of information and using that information in new ways that augmented brain performance,” the lead author of the paper said. The researchers believe that gist training offers promise as a strategy for helping older adults to improve their cognitive functioning and younger individuals to maintain their skills and mental strength.
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