Dr. Adrian Preda, our newest Expert Contributor, writes today the first in a series of thought-provoking articles, challenging us to think about physical exercise as the best and most unappreciated form of “brain exercise”. A superb article.

And one thing is clear, he points out: “the brain really likes it when it’s asked to be “active”. Passive audiences, which are spoon fed information, score less well when tested on retention and understanding of the presented material than audiences that were kept engaged through the process.”

So, will you write a comment below and contribute to an engaging conversation? Thoughts? reactions? questions?
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Don’t ignore plain old common sense.

Brain Lessons Part 1

– By Adrian Preda, M.D.

Let me start with a list of common biases: expensive is better than cheap, free is of dubious value (why would then be free?), rare is likely to be valuable, and while new is better than old, ancient is always best. Which explains a common scenario that is reenacted about twice a week in my office. It starts like this: a patient shows me a fancy looking bottle of the brain supplement of the week: ancient roots with obscure names mixed together in another novel combination which you can exclusively find in that one and only store (rarity oblige!). And not to forget: it ain’t cheap either! Of course, there it is, the perfect the recipe for success: ancient yet new, rare and expensive. It got to be good! But is it, really?

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A fun article from the BBC highlights some of the latest entries to the 2.5 billion-word database of words in the Collins English Dictionary, 9th edition.

We were of course biased and happy to see “brainfood” as a newly minted word. According to Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, they define “brain food“:

Part of Speech: n
Definition: any food that is considered to aid intelligence, memory, or creativity; by extension, any intellectual sustenance

We’d like to add SharpBrains to the list of brain foods! If you need some puzzles to pick up your mental metabolism, see how you do on these. Or maybe delve into some science and see if that expands your mental waistline a bit. Just save room for dessert!