Brain Secrets
Learning New Skills Re-wires Your Brain!
“Changes induced by skill learning are MASSIVE.”
— Michael Merzenich
Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich is one of several researchers looking into the brain’s ability to actively re-wire itself. We are just beginning to glimpse this incredible power, and relate it to lifestyle, our choices of behavior, and just about all the activities in our daily doings.
Evidently our brains are selective. They have strategies for defining the meaning of whatever input they receive. Under our attentional and behavioral control, they determine the significance of events. Our brain structures actually change in some pretty interesting ways when we learn new skills.
What we put our attention on MATTERS!
Want to be happier, increase your abilities, capabilities, and general sense of wellbeing? YOU are in charge of creating your own adult brain! What you focus on and how you nurture yourself makes all the difference in the world in maintaining
Your Own High-Functioning Learning Machine.
Go check out some of the links, courses, and reports found over on the sidebar. And heck, go to the library! Read Daniel Amen’s books. Find out about brain aerobics and how you can exercise your capacity to move toward goals and dreams.
You-Know-Who Is Responsible for Your Brain from Now On :)
You can hear Dr. Merzenich live at the TED Conference, giving a packed 20 minutes on the subject. It’s a rather academic (how’s that for dry?) lecture but if you can sit in class a few minutes, here it is. Be sure to watch toward the end, when he talks about rescuing our own brains from the slip and slide of decline.
Our Brains are “Constructed for Change.”
Go learn something that interests you!
Here’s Michael Merzenich for free:
Daniel Amen’s books are full of practical, very doable steps toward the changes Michael Merzenich is talking about. You can get your own and avoid those pesky overdue notices from the library. Change Your Brain Change Your Life, and Magnifiicent Mind at any Age, are both keepers. Remember, what you put your attention on Matters!
Great incentives here to learn new stuff. I just read on engadget about Tetris playing improving brain efficiency and leading to a thicker cortex. Somebody was doing a study about whether stimulation can change the brain and found structural changes did occur. Now whenever I get caught playing video games, I can say, “It’s ok, honey, I’m re-wiring my brain.” Thanks for the post.
p.s. Daniel Amen is awesome!
Hilarious, Mario. Thanks for the hot tip!