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Sep 8, 2006

The Executive Brain and How our Minds Can Grow Stronger

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Last week I had the plea­sure to meet, in his NYC clin­i­cal prac­tice, with our sci­en­tific advi­sor Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, renowned neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist and author of The Exec­u­tive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civ­i­lized Mind and The Wis­dom Para­dox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older

Which brings me back to the begin­ning of our Brain Fit­ness adven­ture, once it became obvi­ous that the world of Brain Fit­ness was real and com­ing. Let me try to sum­ma­rize some of the key over­all research find­ings out­lined in both books:

-  Our brains enjoy Life­long Brain Plas­tic­ity: until recently, a pop­u­lar mis­con­cep­tion was that  neu­rons die through life and do not get replen­ished. Now, neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, or the abil­ity of our brains to cre­ate new neu­rons until the very day we die, is proven.

- Intense men­tal chal­lenges pro­vide extra resis­tance to age­ing and improve pat­tern recog­ni­tion and brain “effi­ciency”, this is, the abil­ity to take on sim­i­lar chal­lenges with reduced meta­bol­i­cal demands

- Our men­tal activ­ity influ­ences the gen­er­a­tion of neu­rons and where they go. The func­tional capac­ity of our neural net­works depends on the num­ber of neu­rons and their connections-both short and long

- Exer­cis­ing our brains is as impor­tant as exer­cis­ing our bod­ies. “Use it or lose it” came from ath­let­ics to brain sci­ence. Even bet­ter, now we know that“Use it and get more of it.

-  The path­ways that con­nect the frontal lobes with the rest of the brain are slow to mature, reach­ing full oper­a­tional state, and there­fore social matu­rity, between the ages of 18 and 30.

- Inten­sive and well-targeted Brain Fit­ness Pro­grams can pro­duce good results in as short as 3 months.

- The rate of devel­op­ment of new neu­rons can be influ­enced by cog­ni­tive activ­i­ties. Another day we will cover more ground on the spe­cific research stud­ies that dis­cov­ered the find­ings above, and on Dr. Goldberg’s work on Brain Fit­ness programs.In the mean­time, you can read some fas­ci­nat­ing arti­cles cat­e­go­rized by topic at our Resources section.

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Categories: Cognitive Neuroscience, Education & Lifelong Learning, Health & Wellness, Peak Performance, Professional Development, Technology, Uncategorized

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19 Responses

  1. Jesula Compere says:
    September 23, 2006 at 1:17

    I would need to get a phone num­ber for more information.

  2. Alvaro says:
    September 25, 2006 at 10:49

    Jesula, I will con­tact you. Thanks for reach­ing to us.

  3. Brain Fitness, Cultivating Cognition, and Science « SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution says:
    October 1, 2006 at 10:03

    […] You can read in more depth about a cou­ple of areas he touches on, such as some high­lights from the clin­i­cal work and books by Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg , and an inter­view with Cogmed’s Dr. Torkel Kling­berg, the lead­ing sci­en­tist behind RoboMemo. […]

  4. Cognitive Training and ADD/ ADHD: interview with Prof. David Rabiner « SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution says:
    October 8, 2006 at 4:43

    […] DR: cog­ni­tive train­ing rests on solid premises, and some pro­grams already have very promis­ing research results. Cog­ni­tive areas, such as atten­tion, or work­ing mem­ory, can be con­cep­tu­al­ized as skills and, as such, you can train them. Now, train­ing means extended and well-targeted prac­tice. (As Pro­fes­sor Rabiner men­tions this, I remem­ber Dr. Goldberg’s insis­tence on the need for “intense men­tal challenges”). […]

  5. Working Memory Training and RoboMemo: interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg « SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution says:
    October 11, 2006 at 7:05

    […] You may also be inter­ested in the fol­low­ing posts — Inter­view with Prof. David Rabiner on Cog­ni­tive Train­ing and ADD/ ADHD — Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and brain exer­cise — Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing and Atten­tion Deficits […]

  6. mei says:
    October 13, 2006 at 8:00

    just inter­ested to know what kind of brain exer­cises are being used.

  7. Alvaro says:
    October 13, 2006 at 5:51

    Hi Mei,

    A com­bi­na­tion of best com­mer­cially and clin­i­cally avail­able pack­ages, with spe­cific exer­cises selected for each patient accord­ing to his/ her needs and Dr. Gold­berg and team’s judgement.

  8. SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution » Blog Archive » Cognitive Training and ADD/ ADHD: interview with Prof. David Rabiner says:
    October 28, 2006 at 7:44

    […] DR: cog­ni­tive train­ing rests on solid premises, and some pro­grams already have very promis­ing research results. Cog­ni­tive areas, such as atten­tion, or work­ing mem­ory, can be con­cep­tu­al­ized as skills and there is grow­ing evi­dence that like other kinds of skills, they can be devel­oped and improved with con­certed prac­tice. (As Pro­fes­sor Rabiner men­tions this, I remem­ber Dr. Goldberg’s insis­tence on the need for “intense men­tal challenges”). […]

  9. SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution » Blog Archive » Brain Fitness, Cultivating Cognition, and Brain Science says:
    October 28, 2006 at 7:46

    […] You can read in more depth about a cou­ple of areas he touches on, such as some high­lights from the clin­i­cal work and books by Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg , and an inter­view with Cogmed’s Dr. Torkel Kling­berg, the lead­ing sci­en­tist behind RoboMemo. […]

  10. The Neuroscience of Leadership and Brain Fitness « SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution says:
    November 9, 2006 at 1:33

    […] Fur­ther infor­ma­tion on a num­ber of these and other areas cov­ered in the arti­cle: — Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and brain exer­cise — On being “smart” and build­ing neural con­nec­tions — “Use It or Lose It”: what is “It”? (sim­pli­fied brain anatomy) — Ready to learn? — Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing and Atten­tion — On atten­tion, trad­ing psy­chol­ogy and open minds — Emo­tions and Decision-Making — Brain Fit­ness Pro­grams and the Brain and Mind Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion — Phys­i­cal fit­ness and Brain Fit­ness — On being positive […]

  11. SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution » Blog Archive » Enhancing Trader Performance and The Psychology of Trading: Interview with Brett N. Steenbarger says:
    November 16, 2006 at 4:43

    […] Brett: First, I find that Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg’s metaphor of a gym­na­sium for the brain is very appeal­ing. We will be see­ing more and more tools for cog­ni­tive and brain fit­ness. Dr. Gold­berg cites con­sid­er­able research that indi­cates we can improve the func­tion­ing of our frontal cor­tex — home of our exec­u­tive func­tions such as our rea­son­ing, plan­ning, judg­ment, analy­sis, and problem-solving -, through struc­tured exer­cises, much as we can build our mus­cles in the gym. […]

  12. armand l martin OD says:
    November 26, 2006 at 4:21

    do cur­rent stud­ies sup­port the idea that short term mem­ory can be improved? alm

  13. Alvaro says:
    November 26, 2006 at 4:31

    Armand, the tech­ni­cal word these days is “work­ing mem­ory”, and, yes, there is evi­dence that it can be improved through well-targeted, inten­sive, computer-based training.

    See this inter­view with Dr. Torkel Kling­berg
    http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/09/25/working-memory-training-and-robomemo-interview-with-dr-torkel-klingberg/

  14. Blogs, news and more! says:
    January 10, 2007 at 6:48

    very nice blog!mary

  15. Caroline says:
    January 10, 2007 at 6:57

    Thanks Mary!

  16. » The Upside of Aging-WSJ   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    February 19, 2007 at 12:48

    […] We dis­cussed some of this effects with Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, who wrote his great book The Wis­dom Para­dox pre­cisely on this point, at The Exec­u­tive Brain and How our Minds Can Grow Stronger. […]

  17. » Baby Boomers, Healthy Aging and Job Performance   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    March 25, 2007 at 8:44

    […] We dis­cussed some of these effects with Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, who wrote his great book The Wis­dom Para­dox pre­cisely on this point, at The Exec­u­tive Brain and How our Minds Can Grow Stronger. […]

  18. » Jack and Elaine LaLanne and Brain Health   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    July 21, 2007 at 12:50

    […] In our post The Exec­u­tive Brain and How our Minds Can Grow Stronger, we explore some of the basics of brain exercise…vey sim­i­lar to the con­cepts pro­moted by the LaLannes for phys­i­cal exercise: […]

  19. » 10 Habits of Highly Effective Brains   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    August 22, 2007 at 6:08

    […] Thrive on Learning and Men­tal Chal­lenges. The point of hav­ing a brain is pre­cisely to learn and to adapt to chal­leng­ing new envi­ron­ments. Once new neu­rons appear in your brain, where they are used and how long they sur­vive depends on how you use them to a large extent. “Use It or Lose It” does not mean “do cross­word puz­zle num­ber 1,234,567″. It means, “challenge your brain often with fun­da­men­tally new activities”.  […]

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