stroke patients improve dramatically through the use of software to help with language and memory. also playing video games regularly improves your reaction time, and it has been shown that people who do play regularly can adapt to new environments far better. i think there was a survey about car crashes a while back that suggested playing games (simulating driving cars) had dramatically reduced car crashes in real life compared with people who have not played racing games.
I used brain training (lumosity) for about a month, then played battlefield 3 again, very noticable improvement in reactions, spatial awareness, and coordination, and obviously K/D ratio, which I can only blame brain training for...its awesome!
I've been a programmer since I was 8, and for a few years in my 20s I got away from it. I've found exactly the same thing: my mind constantly analyses all initial circumstances that I can think of, however rare, and tries to spot problems down the line. Sometimes this is beneficial, but sometimes not: I find it hard to take calculated risks, and to be intuitive, particularly in social situations. And since I started programming again, I feel I have reverted, and lost something good.
I really like this channel. Right next to math (which I am studying), psychology is a big fascination of mine. I was sad to see that my university didn't offer any courses on it, but I'm happy to get pieces of information from here and other sources.
There was recently a study (I forget which journal) that showed cognitive benefits to having novel experiences - trying new things, meeting new people, etc. It makes sense given how brain development actually takes place, which is primarily as a result of intense stimulus. I often worry about modern adolescent brains. They are so absurdly sheltered that they're almost certainly being stunted in their development.
I suggest you read "The Brain That Changes Itself", by Norman Doidge. It explains clearly how neuroplasticity works and how it's optimally 'used'. Very interesting to read, and I think you'd enjoy it.
That's just the physical state of your brain, what they're discussing is the capabilities of your brain and the potential if any at all, to actually increase it. Which means going past your limits in terms of processing power, the amount of information you can store in your short term memory at any given time. Basically what you mentioned is like keeping your computer in top shape, cleaning it, not overloading it, etc. What they're talking about is raising your computer's specs.
That's exactly why the ideal distance for sitting behind a screen is about 5-7 times the height. Also, working behind a computer becomes less stressful and that you'll sleep better. Bigger monitor, or television isn't always better. It depends on the size of your room, or desk.
You can't really divide it up like that though. The physical state of your brain is going to affect your "processing power", it's going to allow you to focus better on tasks (self-control), aid your memory (sleep) and keep it pumped with "fuel" (diet and exercise). All of it has an impact, as well as what you decide to focus your attention on (reading, motor tasks, video games, etc.) and decide put in your system (eg. alcohol).
I'd like to see some more videos on this channel. Perhaps you could make a video on connections between neuroscience and psychology. For example, Jeff Hawkins' "Memory Prediction Framework" is a good theory about the brain that gives some explanations for different behaviors examined in psychology.
With the last part I mean that we can train all our resources to be more efficient, but we cannot benefit from all increased efficiency simultaneously. It's vital we keep a balanced brain, so train everything, because you're gonna need everything if you truly want to be smart
It sometimes depresses me that I can't hit the like button more than once... I've been wondering about this for a while subconsciously at least. Interesting video!
I'm surprised they didn't mention living a healthy lifestyle as arguably the best way to keep your brain healthy. Getting the recommended amount of sleep, eating well and trying to not be too stressed out is probably the best thing your your brain.
I personally think reading articles and learning about things that interest you would have a huge impact on "brain training". Also reading books, books that make you think like mystery books or something like that. Just my opinion, but I think it would work.
I've heard music (playing, learning about it (theory and ear training)) is one of those things that can improve our brains. Many studies seem to be showing that.
I found playing first person shooters improved my reaction time, spatial orientation, and taking split second decisions. I also found playing strategy games improved my skills in other strategy games and general strategic thinking.
I've heard that playing a musical instrument is about the only thing that can really help one's brain, outright. Although, the benefits do diminish the later one starts.
I'm surprised music wasn't mentioned. According to Oliver Sacks, the only the thing you can really do that visibly and reliably alters the structure of the brain is learning to play a musical instrument.
Penny's paper I believe - "Ventromedial prefrontal volume predicts understanding of others and social network size" in NeuroImage Vol.57, Issue.4 15 Aug 2011 She's written over 50 papers and her work is cited in over 1200 other papers.
Make sure you are not living under great pressure or stress. Healthy social life and security in terms of sustainability of lifestyle you would want. Not having these things are the biggest threats to one's mind. Also "leaning new" or rather exposing ones brain to change or veriety seems to be suggested. So in that regard try to learn from out in the world as well. Travel, interact with others, put your self in challenging positions and always question and reflect on your ideas/morals./values.
It's also to do with past education I think. People who study maths at higher level generally find it much easier to grasp science concepts than people with humanities background. Really regret not doing maths for a levels now!
According to the video description that is Ellen Poliakoff. If I'm not mistaken that is Professor Poliakoff's daughter. He's on the Periodic Table of Videos channel.
With the orbital frontal cortex (did I get that right?), couldn't it be the other way around? Couldn't be that people with naturally larger OFCs simply make more social contact?
I think she might have been talking about a specific sort of brain training regime? I remember there was one that bought a lot of ad time on RU-vid a few months ago that I think involved a lot of flashing buttons.
Oh, I've also played a couple of Professor Layton games. :D I Really like them. Though, as you're saying, rather than actually "expanding your brain" or anything like that I think the practical value in them instead lies in the lesson they repeatedly teach. "Think outside the box." Solutions are often not apparent until we look a little harder. We tend to think that What We See Is All There Is, Layton shows us differently. It's a simple lesson but it can be hard to grasp.
Exactly. I think puzzles and logic games are maybe good to increase your attention, at least. Professor Layton series on DS made me always look on enigmas differently.
Look... If you want to keep your mind healthy and sharp, learn something that is intellectually taxing every day. For example, teach yourself musicianship (all aspects in every instrument you can get your hands on). It's the gift that keeps on giving. You're welcome.
So, I have noticed that when a person being interviewed gets asked a question, they generally look to their left. Why is that, and why not right, up or down?
I´m not a specialist but the trade off seems quite obvious. 1) You are born genius brilliant mathematician, musician whatever, most likely your brain trade off some social skills, or other abilities. There is a plenty of examples in history of famous people. 2) As a analogy to sport when you are a professional runner for example you will spend 99% of your time running, simply by the fact that you are using moste of the time for one activity limits you to develop any other physical skills.
What neither of them mentioned was the benefits of physical exercise to cognitive functions. We know that the onset a number of neurodegenerative disorders can be belated by regular exercise.
on the last thing, isn't it possible that those areas of the brain were correlated with remembering specifics of interactions, rather than having them?
Top comment isn't "What everyone took away from the video" it is just what the most amount of people could agree upon and feel compeled enough to click the thumbs-up. Because physical beauty is easily agreed upon across cultures and sexes as well as eliciting a strong emotion it is most likely to get voted up. So you could turn your "unscientific" top comment into an interesting physiological case study.
"The better you get at pressing buttons", "Just pressing flashing buttons", does she even know what a videogame is? And there is an upper limit to the muscle a healthy human body can sustain, so your analogy was correct.
Funny how none of them mention diet, physical exercise and proper sleep as ways to strengthen your brain, as those are likely more beneficial (for general cognitive ability, memory, and self control etc.) than the literal “brain training” (the game) that they discussed.
Hmmm, I was considering believing an academic psychologist, talking about her area of expertise and discussing the possibility of this, but now that a random person on the internet has said that he or she doesn't think it's right, I don't know.
The thing is though that psychoanalysis isn't used that much in applied psychology anymore because -- hold on to your fashionable hat -- it isn't scientifically viable. What you do find is experiments that are repeatable (behavioral changes, reaction times, typical responses to stimuli etc.), can often be tied to other fields (neuroscience), and is a great help to understanding the human psyche as a whole. So yeah, it's a science alright.
Why is it that people always claim to debunk Tammet? He never claimed anything other than to be able to do stuff that he then did. Is it "debunking" Usain Bolt to point out that he trains and doesn't just stroll in one race day having sat around all year?
So basically, repetitive basic tasks, like a child's memory game, have little use, unlike sit ups for a physical sport. The mental task is only useful with a high level of interaction and concept, like practicing plays in a sport. Its not remembering the words for a cross word, its the process of obtaining and applying them. Seems fair, memorizing a puzzle, doesn't seem as useful over all, as understaning the process of solving them.
Apparently there is a very direct correlation between the size of a primate's brain and the size of the social groups [troop] it typically inhabits. So the insight at 6:30 seems to make sense.
I'm a boxer and when I get up in the ring I always worry about the possibility of brain damage. It would be great if you ask them, what are he effects of punch to the head.
I always find it funny working in radiology when videos and TV shows misuse imaging, particularly MRI. A sagittal T1 brain and axial DWI won't give you the information you need for this topic. Perfusion tensor imaging is where its at.
I don't need drugs and pharmaceuticals to do that. It's better without any stimulants. The only reason I was drinking coffee is because I needed something to drink. It's a tradition among the programmers to always drink something while coding. Some drink tea, some coffee, some hot chocolate, etc.
so damn agreed! After you've been programming for a while, your view on everything changes. You will start trying to foresee any possible event after running your program and this will make you do the same in all situations. Each time one of my friends says something I always have to chime in with other possibilities which they may have overlooked. lol Programming is a really good brain trainer!
Oh I know. But my monitor is amazing nonetheless. I really enjoy having a big monitor, it gives me a great overview. It only happens once in a while that it bothers me - including ultra-close ups during fullscreen mode :-)
Hi Brady. Just a little bit of constructive criticism. I have a 24" monitor, so these ultra-close up shots annoy me a bit. Could just be me. Anyways, interesting video. Keep 'em up! :)
When I did an IQ test with a clinical psychologist last year she told me she'd never seen someone get a perfect score on the math section so quickly. Does this mean that I should stop doing my daily math exercises? Am I wasting my time, or worse, weakening my brain in other areas?
The woman does have beautiful eyes. It's a simple compliment. How about getting off the high horse, and taking a look at the healthy amount of comments discussing the brain. Also, remember you're on youtube, not on some academia website.
i love those eyes i dont know if it is the color or the thick dark ring as you said, look selah sue's pictures on google she has one of the greatest eyes i have ever seen (sorry for my bad english i am french not bilingual)
I am a younger person, but I am worried about my brain elasticity in my older years. If I made a habit of learning something new everyday, for example on youtube, but only learned by this manner, would it be beneficial or would my brain adapt and become "numb" to this manner of learning?
Yes good suggestion, meditation has been studied with neuro imaging (matthieu ricard) from a basic understanding i gather that over years of practiced meditation, the brain regions associated with positive feelings are activated during meditation, there are other related videos on youtube, but the best way to get an insight is looking at the actual journal articles
I partially disagree with them, from my experience, the more logically challenging games, problems you solve, it helps you think ahead of time. Once you have trained a network of neurons for a specific task, it may also helps to solve a similar problem somewhere else. It may not improve your "brain capacity" but your brain becomes more efficient and productive at tasks that are similar to the tasks you have already experienced (solved). im no neurologist, but a developer who solves problems.
agreed. Psyfile is great, but I think the interviewed people have an inaccurate depiction of brain training. imo the benefit of brain training is being able to tackle specific types of cognitive challenges, so you can train types of thought you generally dont get to train. Everyone has some areas where they are lacking and could benefit from simple games :) The analogy with muscles is ambiguous too: We indeed have limited resources, but it only applies "live": During one moment. Not potential.
So, there's a correlation between the size of part of the brain and the amount of social contacts... but I wonder, can you actually improve that part of your brain by having more social contacts, or is it that people who naturally have more brain power there subsequently find socializing easier and therefore have more social contacts as a result? Thoughts anyone?
A) that's probably not true about many men B) even if it is, that's no excuse to concentrate and pay attention on someone's looks more than what they're saying. as a female who loves science and loves to talk about it i can say it's very annoying and discouraging when a guy will stare at my breasts instead of listening to what i say and then, to add insult to injury, reacts really strongly when a guy says the same thing i did a few minutes ago.
Sadly not all of psychology adheres to this. When I was explained the concept of small effect sizes, my faith in my own area of study took a big hit. This is also a good related read : scratch that, youtube (google) apparently hates other websites.
Real "Brain Training" isn't about doing the same thing over and over again or learning how to press a button faster. Good brain training programs are about presenting entirely new or novel challenges and learning how to deal with the variables. If you just keep playing the same game after you get good at it you won't really benefit overall.
"on a science video" Science doesn't inhabit some special realm, it is an imperfect human invention. This imperfection is just much more obvious/visible when it comes to an anonymous forum(youtube comments section). Why be saddened by something that we are incapable of getting rid of?, human nature.
I don't get the analogy. If you run 5 miles a week, and then stop doing that, within a few months you will not be able to run 5 miles. It is maintainance. Same thing with mental arithmetic if I use it on a regular basis I am fast at it, if I stop doing it for a year and try to do it I will be much slower at it.
From what I've heard meditation is good for you. The exact reasons why, I do not know. I would also be interested in how it works and what exactly it does. Keep in mind there are different forms of meditation.
Working for the BBC for seven years doesn't make him a professional? It would be nice to know there names, that's no reason to insult the man though. Thank you for the videos Brady.
1 deck is nothing. Ben Pridmore can memorize 30-36 decks in 1 hour. Simon Reinhard can memorize the whole deck in 21 seconds. But none of them have eidetic memory. Just powerful techniques. (e..g Major system, loci method etc.)
Brady Haran could you make a video asking them on how meditation affects the brain and if it is healthy to it? Please thumbs up if you desire the same ^^
