Have you already read The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness?

Let’s see…

1. Pick the only part of your body that does not contain fat:

a. Arm
b. Thigh
c. Brain
d. None

Answer: d) Fats are also present in the brain: in neurons’ membranes to keep them flexible. These fats are the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids molecules. (Page 32 of the book)

2. Pick the only food product that doesn’t contain Omega-3 fatty acids

a. Tuna
b. Walnut
c. Kiwi
d. Jelly Beans

Answer: d) Fatty acids can be found in cold-water fish (such as mackerel, herring, salmon, and tuna), kiwi, and walnuts. (Page 33)

3. Pick the only food product that doesn’t contain antioxidants

a. Olive oil
b. Milk
c. Nuts
d. Berries

Answer: b) Antioxidants can be found in vegetable oils, nuts, green leafy vegetables (e.g., spinach), citrus fruit, and berries. (Page 33)

4. Chronic Stress cannot:

a. Prevent you from being creative
b. Kill brain cells
c. Prevent you from sleeping
d. Kill liver cells

Answer: d) Prolonged exposure to adrenal steroid hormones like cortisol, which is released into the blood stream when we are stressed, can lead to cell death and block the formation of new neurons. (Page 35)

5. What type of physical exercise is the best for your brain health?

a. Weight lifting
b. Aerobic exercises
c. Flexibility exercises Read the rest of this entry »

Today we will continue our review of the benefits of brain training for specific occupations: in this case, pilots and basketball players. The lessons can be relevant not only for corporate training but also for education and brain health & wellness.

To do so, we will select quotes from our interview last year with one of the major scientists in the field of cognitive simulations, Professor Daniel Gopher. You can read the full interview here.

Prof. Gopher published an award-winning article in 1994, Gopher, D., Weil, M. and Baraket, T. (1994), Transfer of skill from a computer game trainer to flight, Human Factors 36, 1–19., that constitutes a key milestone in the cognitive engineering field.

On Cognitive Training and Cognitive Simulations

AF: Tell us a bit about your overall research interests

DG: My main interest has been how to expand the limits of human attention, information processing and response capabilities which are critical in complex, real-time decision-making, high-demand tasks such as flying a military jet or playing professional basketball. Using a tennis analogy, my goal has been, and is, how to help develop many “Wimbledon”-like champions. Each with their own styles, but performing to their maximum capacity to succeed in their environments.

What research over the last 15-20 years has shown is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically. And that computer-based cognitive trainers or “cognitive simulations” are the most effective and efficient way to do so.

This is an important point, so let me emphasize it. What we have discovered is that a key factor for an effective transfer from training environment to reality is that the training program ensures “Cognitive Fidelity”, this is, it should faithfully represent the mental demands that happen in the real world. Traditional approaches focus instead on Read the rest of this entry »

In the post Trader Peak Performance and biofeedback programs we showed the Heart Rate Variability patterns correlated with levels of a) anxiety or b) Peak Performance, “The Zone”. Biofeedback supports our emotional self-regulation: we can visually track what is going on inside us and train ourselves to manage our emotional state. On the left you have an example of my own performance during a 5-minute experiment 4 months ago. At the top, you see my name; at the bottom, the duration of the session. Right axis, for top half, is Heart Rate. (This is only the half left of the screen in the program-the right half would give you more information.) I have highlighted several phases:

A: you can see long waves following a smooth rhythm-that is the physiological “The Zone”, where I can perform at maximum level. I was using breathing and visualization techniques that are sometimes called “The Mental Game” in athletics and sports.

B: I stressed myself. How? well, maybe thinking of a previous boss, or some bad moment in my life. You see that the “waves” dissappear, and narrow erratic patterns appear instead.

C: I quickly go back into “The Zone”, Read the rest of this entry »