Mindfulness mediation is scientifically proven to change brains.

Measurable improvements in your ability to direct attention kick in after just 5-10 half hour sessions. After 10-20 sessions the white matter (brain wires) in an area called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) start looking different on MRI scans. By this point people often notice a distinct improvement in their mood.

It takes a month to create so many new connections between brain wires in this region that the grey matter becomes significantly denser. These changes, and others scattered throughout important parts of your brain, improve people’s physical health and psychological well-being. And for those more preoccupied with success than looking after themselves – it also boosts cognitive performance.

As someone who’s mind is always on the move I personally find it very difficult to just focus on my breath. The body scan meditation is much easier for me to stick with because somebody else’s voice guides you through each stage of the meditation process. As I found it really helped me to stay focused on the present moment, rather than mind-wandering endlessly into other thought patterns, I started using the body scan script to guide people attending my talks in their first steps into meditation.

I promised I’d make the Body Scan script I’ve been working with available in this month’s blog so that other people can read it out to those who want to give mindfulness a go, so here it is…

It looks like a poem, but it isn’t. I structured it like that to help me get the appropriate pacing; to remind me where to pause before moving on. If the script is delivered at a reasonably slow pace, it should last about 20 minutes. Too long for many children, but just right for busy adults. It can always be shortened to suit kids of different ages by concentrating on specific body parts and skipping the others.

If some of the words are not the kind of language you’d normally use in your part of the world, please feel free to change it to make it sound more natural. But do try to keep the verb structure. Words like: “moving,” “shifting,” “accepting” – invite the listener to focus on different parts of their body rather than instructing or commanding them to do so. It can sound a bit wishy washy, but it’s important that people don’t feel like they’re being bossed around. Using non-confrontational language like this helps to avoid getting people’s heckles up.

So, here’s the body scan meditation I’ve been working with:

“This body scan meditation is designed,

To bring greater awareness to body and to mind.

We’ll be doing this in a state of physical motionless,

So try to arrange a time and a place,

In which you’ll be comfortable,

And you won’t be disturbed

Dressing in loose and comfortable clothing

Which won’t restrict your waist or your breathing

This meditation is usually done while lying on your back

But can be done in any position that is comfortable for you

It can be done on a rug, a mat, or towel laid out on the floor,

Or even in a comfortable chair or lying on a bed.

If you are lying on your back

Position your arms so that they are lying alongside you

Palms up towards the ceiling, so long as that is comfortable for you.

Place both heels on the floor,

And allow your feet to fall away from one other.

And as you’re lying there…

Allow yourself to notice whatever pops up into your awareness,

Simply accepting whatever is happening in your body and your mind,

Experiencing it with clarity,

And as it is in the moment.

Noticing where your body makes contact with the floor, the chair or the
bed,

You may feel sensations of touch or pressure

On your heels…

Your calves…

Your legs…

Your bum…

Your upper back…

Your arms…

And as you’re becoming aware of these sensations,

Bring your awareness to the fact that you’re breathing [extended pause]

Noticing the physical sensations of breath,

Just noticing the rhythm of your breath.

As it moves your belly,

Slight movements of your chest.

You may become aware of how the air enters your nostrils,

            And through your windpipe and into
your lungs

Allowing that natural movement of your breath to continue,

Without really having to do anything about it at all.

There’s a tendency to
want to control the breathing when we bring attention to it

Just noticing how it
is, is just fine…

Whether it’s short and
fast…

 Or long and deep…

Just allowing it to
move at its own rhythm……….

And when you’re ready,
on your next in-breath,

Allowing the breath
that comes in to fill up your lungs, move your tummy up

Imagine that your
entire body is hollow

…and accepts the air
as it comes in through the lungs

accepts the air as it
comes in through the nostrils

… in through the
lungs…

… imagining that it
goes all the way in, down into the belly, into the legs

… all the way down
into the toes

You may notice
tingling, or warmth, or coolness, or pulsing…

… or you may not be particularly
aware of anything at all

If that’s the case,
just be aware that that’s where your attention is…

And as you breath out,
allowing your awareness to move from your toes

… to the balls of your
feet

Allowing your
awareness of the balls of your feet to dissolve…

… as you move your
awareness to the whole sole of your foot

… all the way down to
your heel

Spread your awareness
across the whole triangular part of your foot…

… the areas that make
contact  with the ground when you walk

 And noticing where your heel is touching the
floor…

… and the floor is
touching the heel, right now

And whatever you might
be noticing,

Is just what you
happen to be noticing right now.

There’s no right or
wrong feeling or sensation to have.

And allowing your
awareness to move to the ankles.

All the way from the
surface of the skin to the inner parts.

The bones and tendons
inside that support your body when you walk.

And on your next
out-breath, moving your awareness to the calves of your legs

… including the part that
is making contact with the floor

… and the muscles and
tendons that run alongside the shin bone

And when you’re ready,
moving your awareness to your knees,

… including the back
of the knee

… the kneecap itself

… the joint inside

…. the skin around the
whole circumference

And moving from your
knees to your thighs

… the quads on the
top, to the hams on the bottom

… bringing your
awareness to the whole circumference of your thighs

The muscles and
tendons right down to the bone…

… seeing what it’s
like to have your awareness on this part

You may feel
heaviness, or your pulse, or tingling, or pressure…

… whatever comes to
awareness is right, there is no wrong…

And as you’re ready to
do this, bringing your awareness higher to the hip

… the pelvic area

… buttocks where they
touch the floor

And moving your
awareness from the pelvic area to the lower back

… right the way round
to your abdomen, all the way round the circumference

… & being aware of
how your movement of breath affects this part of your body

On each in-breath your
tummy expands a little

On the out-breath it
flattens somewhat

And seeing if it’s
possible to maintain awareness of your breathing through a whole cycle

And how it’s
physically moving with your abdomen

All the way through
the in-breath, to the pause between in- and out-breath

As you’re ready to go
in the other direction – through the out-breath

Noticing how the
expansion and contraction affects the sensations on your skin…

… from your clothes,
or pressure from the floor…

Moving your awareness
higher up your body..

…to the area of the
diaphragm, deep inside the base of the ribcage

Including the areas
both on top and below the diaphram

…where some of the
internal organs are

…and bringing your
awareness into rib cage … and your middle back

If, as we’re doing
this, you’re noticing any holding or tension…

…in any part of your
body…

…just noticing that
that’s there

Letting your breath
move through that part of your body…

… if your breath is
affecting it

Imagining your breath
going into that part of your body

Imagining it leaving –
in it’s own rhythm

 And when you’re ready bringing your attention
and your awareness

… inside the cavity of
your chest

… your ribcage

… round to your upper
back

… where it touches the
mat or the floor

Noticing how the chest
is expanding and contracting…

just slightly with
each breath…….

Being aware of how the
entire torso area moves ….

… very slightly during
each in-breath and out-breath ….

… being aware of how
your shoulders are affected by each breath….

… including the upper
parts of your shoulders

…. the sides of your
shoulders

… the upper back

Moving your awareness
from the shoulders themselves

To where they attach
to your neck

And sensing into those
areas of connection

Starting from a broad
base at the top of the shoulders…

… and narrowing to the
neck itself

With your next
in-breath,

… allowing your
awareness to move back into your shoulders…

… through your upper
arms

… through elbow to
your lower arms

….. all the way down through
your hands

…. to your fingertips

Imagining your breath
moving in / out of that area…

… and shifting your
attention now to the back of your hands….

…… and the palms of
your hands

…. The base of the
thumb, where it connects to the hand itself

…. And shifting your
awareness to your wrists

Moving to your lower
arms …

…. Extending all the
way from your wrists to your elbows

And moving your focus
from your elbows to your upper arms…

… and back up into the
shoulders

And the base of the
neck…

… and moving from the
base of your neck round to the sides and the throat area

… and up into the jaw

… now including the
sensations you might have in the inside of your mouth

When you’re ready
shifting your attention into your tongue

… shift your attention
into your gums and your lips

… and being aware that
your lips have both an interior and exterior surface

… and then into the
cheeks

To the nose…

… noticing how the
cool air comes in through the nostrils

… and noticing the
warmer feel of the breath as it passes back out again

Moving up into the
eyes…

… and the muscles
around the eyes …

… including the upper
cheeks and the eyebrows…

… and the corners of
your eyes

And moving to the
forehead …

… and the surrounding
scalp area

…. From the crown of
your skull to the ears

…. And on to the back
of your head where it makes contact with the floor

And when you’re ready,
sensing into the entire body

From the top of your
head

To the bottom of your
feet

All at the same time.

Allowing and noticing
whatever sensation may appear…

… as you include all
of the body

Head and shoulders…

Arms, torso…

Bum and hips…

Thighs and calves…

Feet …

… allowing things to
be just as they are:

Beyond the tendencies
of the mind to want everything to be a certain way…

Beyond liking and
disliking…

Seeing ourselves as
complete… And whole …

Right here … Right now
… Just exactly as we are…

Noticing and
experiencing… the fullness of life

Acknowledging our
ability to be present… with whatever presents itself

And as this meditation
ends… you might want to wiggle your toes and fingers…

Stretch in whatever
way feels comfortable to you right now …

If your eyes have been
closed, allowing them to let the light in, little by little …

And as you’re ready,
re-establishing contact…

… with the entire
world outside your body.

Thus ends the body scan meditation!“

I hope you find this useful.

I’ve also recorded an audio file of me reading out the script in case people would find it useful. I haven’t quite figured out how to upload it yet but as soon as I do I’ll update this post.

In addition to these monthly blogs I regularly tweet about any interesting neuroscience research that hits the press (@drjacklewis) and next month I’ll finally be launching my new YouTube channel BRAIN MAN VR!!

As the reality that everything is not going to go completely back to normal is sinking in, many people are starting to worry about what life is going to have in store for us when finally reach the so-called “new normal.” The good news, that at least keeps me buoyant when the future starts to look gloomy, is that the human brain has an incredible capacity to adapt to new circumstances. So whatever happens, it’s important to be calm, adopt new habits that help us to adjust to the changes and then try to stay positive.

Many adults are finding themselves staying at home to work, which results inevitably in something of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, many are benefiting from up to ten more hours in bed per week than usual – thanks to the abolition of the commute. On the other hand, the close proximity of the fridge to the workplace leads to overindulgence and the expanding waist-line that results from this.

In the early weeks of lockdown, the guidance that you could only go outside for absolutely essential activities or to take exercise inspired millions to get outside into uncharacteristic spring blue skies to get fit. Some actually did the full on work-out they would usually have done at the gym. Others simply laid down on yoga mats and stretched, book in hand, for hour upon hour. Now that it has become permissible to go outside without exercising, many who found themselves getting fitter not fatter in early lockdown have reversed the trend as the unlock starts to let us out under less stringent conditions. Where did all those people who were frantically exercising outside every single day in March go?

Most kids are not going into schools, which is not great for the kids, because it robs them of much needed social contact with their peers. It’s also not so great for many parents, because most don’t make good substitute teachers and having kids hanging around in the house all day makes getting a proper day’s work done even more of a struggle than usual.

For those living in houseshares, the typical disharmonies caused by annoying housemates either making anti-social levels of noise in their bedrooms or simply leaving communal areas in a mess, become even harder to bear than normal. And for those, like me, who live and work alone, there’s a battle to be waged against social isolation. While some have it worse than others (and let’s spare a thought in particular for those suffering domestic abuse with yet more time stuck with their abusers) Covid-19 has caused some degree of chaos in all our lives.

With the news banging on an on about the unprecedented “this” and the unprecedented “that” you’d be forgiven for thinking that something like this has never happened before; that we’re sailing in entirely uncharted waters. Yet Covid-19 aka SARS-2 is of course the second version of a new wave of viruses that cause the medical condition known as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. So while we’re still getting to know the characteristics of this particular one, we have some experience to draw on with a similar biological agent and humanity as a whole has been dealing with these kinds of threats for aeons. Yes – there are more humans on Earth than ever before and, until very recently, we’ve been flying all over the world at the drop of a hat spreading diseases faster and wider than was previously possible, but coping with infectious diseases on a vast scale is nothing new for humanity.

Humans have always had to face major obstacles, often much harder and more dauntingly insurmountable ones than those we currently face. Our ancestors were engaged in a perpetual struggle for survival, staring death in the face on a daily basis, adapting their ways in an effort to diminish the disruption to their normal daily activities. Famine, pestilence and war, to name but three, have threatened humans for as long as we have roamed the planet. Yet the generations born from around the 1960’s until now have long acted as if they imagined that we were somehow immune to all these threats? That we had somehow raised ourselves beyond the reach of the catastrophes that have routinely blighted the lives of our ancestors? We’ve all had a bit of wake up call, but will it inspire us to be any less complacent, hubristic and entitled? Only time will tell…

The notion that we humans got so good at wielding science and technology that we, in the developed world at least, no longer had anything to fear from mother nature is utterly ridiculous. Yet, at the same time, it is entirely understandable. After all, intuitions derived from personal experience are the primary guiding light of most people’s world view. If the collective experience of a person’s social circles featured little in the way of deep personal suffering, then what reason would they have for suspecting that everything might NOT continue in that vain.

The testimonies of older generations who personally experienced long term suffering in their lifetimes, and on a grand scale, certainly serve to remind the luckier later generations of how fragile the peace of the past handful of decades might be. Yet exposure to such personal anecdotes dwindle on an annual basis, as their numbers inevitably decline. While such important antidotes to hubris can also be conveyed by powerful films, books and documentaries, they lack the personal touch. Compared to the emotional impact of a dearly beloved grandparent’s own personal testimony of the hardships and horrors of war, reminders from the media pale in comparison.

Like pampered princes and princesses, the majority of those enjoying the unprecedented comfort and safety of a childhood spanning the late 20^th or early 21^st centuries in western Europe had never really experienced the kind of suffering considered more or less inevitable by previous generations. Yes, everyone knows what it is to feel pain, or rejection, or disappointment, or guilt, but many previous generations suffered much more deeply and in a prolonged, rather than merely fleeting, fashion. With most people, on average, having had it easy compared to previous generations – we dared to imagine that, beyond the inevitable unlucky few struck down by disease or family catastrophe, we could use science and civilisation to keep the worst hardships of humanity at bay.

While it might have come as a shock that a disease could cause such huge disruption to our normal lifestyles, we can take heart from the fact that our brains are, and always have been, built to adapt. Even in adulthood, we can physically change the connectivity between different areas of our brain to slowly but surely improve our abilities and develop a new repertoire of skills that might help us to adapt to the various changes forced on us by the callous hand of fate. By adapting our daily habits to bolster certain capabilities we can develop whatever cognitive capacities might help us to thrive in new environments, or indeed the same old environment we’ve always been immersed in, but where the goalposts have since been moved.

Given that SARS-2 is likely to come in waves, until everyone’s rolled the dice to find out whether it’s going to hit them mercilessly hard, or mercifully gently, we might as well start accepting now that everything is not going to go completely back to normal. Some people will find this more difficult to accept than others. Just to twist the dagger of reality yet further into the heart of denial: even after SARS-2 has run its course, it’s just a matter of time before SARS-3, SARS-4 and SARS-5 come along. So humanity will inevitably find itself spacing out a lot more in general, if it wants to avoid meeting the same fate at the rabbit population of the UK during the myxomatosis pandemic of the late 20th century. Given all of this, and buoyed by the fact that humans have been adapting to such chaos for hundreds of thousands of years, there is no time to waste. The time to start adopting some habits that will allow our brains to more quickly adapt to the new rules of the game is now.

As well as these monthly brain articles, I also tweet about interesting neuroscience articles (@drjacklewis) and am in the process of reviewing a different virtual reality game or experience every week for a year on my YouTube channel (BrainManVR).

Way back in 2011, I reviewed Norman Doidge’s incredibly inspiring book The Brain That Changes Itself. It tells remarkable stories of various individuals who – long before the idea of adult human neuroplasticity had become widely accepted – managed to defy the odds to overcome adversity by physically changing their own brains. One man was able to regain full control of his speech, movements and faculties, ultimately returning to his beloved lecturing job just a few years after a catastrophic stroke in his mid-60’s. He regained the ability to move and speak fluidly, having been completely paralysed for many months down one side of his body, thanks to years of intensive, daily (and mind-numbingly boring) rehabilitation exercises dreamed up by his neuroscientist son.

One woman – Barbara Arrowsmith-Young – managed to overcome several profound, life-long, learning disabilities; also using brain training approaches of her own design. She was inspired to give it a go by the work of trailblazing Soviet neuropsychologist Aleksandr Luria (on right of photo) investigating brain injured war veterans (on left of photo). These seemingly miraculous achievements enabled patients to use the brain’s tremendous potential for change, even during adulthood, to defy the advice of medical experts of the day and take control of their own fates. In defense of the experts of the time, what these people had managed to do was unprecedented. Regaining lost cognitive capacities, or further developing those that had never flourished in the first place, had simply never been documented at that point in time, so it had been presumed impossible.

Each and every time the key ingredients to success in the brain re-training stakes was always: tireless adhesion to gruelingly intensive, daily, long-term training regimes for the brain trainee themselves. The impulse to take a leap of faith to try something that, while seemingly logical, was both completely unproven and deemed by most experts to be a fool’s errand. These interventions yielded benefits either by retraining intact brain areas to take over the function of permanently damaged parts, or by improving the processing capacity of certain chronically under-served brain areas. In the case of the young woman who fixed her own learning disabilities, her difficulties with reading clock faces inspired her to developed clocks with hands not just for the hours, minutes and seconds, but also for the days, weeks, months, years, decades and so on.

It is now a broadly-accepted fact people can change their brains for the better. Not everything that is touted as brain training actually works of course. Certainly the Mozart Effect is a load of old nonsense. The Tellytubbies project didn’t exactly go to plan. And the manufacturers of brain training apps are apt to vastly overstate the benefits of their rather drab games. Yet is an inviolable truth that, through sheer grit and determination, many people have now overcome incredible neurological adversity, which means that for those with brains that are functioning pretty well in the first place some desirable brain changes must surely also be achievable.

Indeed, as described in my first book – Sort Your Brain Out – when aspiring cabbies want to drive one of London’s famous Hackney Carriages (a.k.a. a black cab) they memorise all the major routes and landmarks within a 6 mile radius of central London to pass an exam known as: The Knowledge. In so doing, they increase the density of synapses packed into the rear-most parts of their hippocampi: brain areas critical to their ability to successfully navigate the complexities of London’s sprawling road network, without having to look at map ever again! The original brain imaging studies demonstrating that hippocampal grey matter actually physically changes when comparing drivers’ brains before versus after The Knowledge were published back in 2011.

These findings were subsequently replicated and extended further by comparing taxi drivers brains to bus drivers brains; re-scanning taxi drivers after retirement etc. Eventually these follow up studies convinced even the most hardened skeptics that neuroplasticity in adults might genuinely be the real deal. Broader acceptance of the idea that adult humans aren’t stuck with whatever brains they end up with by the end of adolescence is empowering. That it is within everyone’s power to affect physical changes to the fabric of their own brain, can genuinely inspire people to take the necessary steps to elevate themselves. But, along the way the simplicity of this message has become corrupted by a combination of those wishing to profit from it, and those pushing back against the hyperbole.

The optimism that greeted these early studies was somewhat dampened when the results of studies into other areas of skill acquisition turned out to be much more underwhelming. For example, juggling induces surprisingly fast (but later, it transpires, relatively short-lived) changes in brain areas involved in processing movements of visual objects in space. So while quick brain changes were possible in the first week, beyond that juggling didn’t really seem to confer any benefits. Add into the mix the emergence of various brain training products trying to exploit the newfangled idea that certain games might improve specific cognitive capacities to a degree that delivers benefits in real life, but not a shred of data to prove this, and the baby of neuroplasticity was on the verge of being thrown out with the dirty brain training bathwater.

A large scale study conducted jointly between a couple of high profile Oxbridge scientists failed to show any meaningful benefits from the brain training games and training regime they devised. That is what happened in that widely broadcast news story. But as SCIENTISTS FAIL TO SHOW MUCH is a pretty lousy headline the BBC went instead for: BRAIN TRAINING GAMES DON’T MAKE US SMARTER. I’ve ranted elsewhere about this so I won’t take up any more precious column inches here by repeating myself, save to point out that in the eyes of the general British public the adult neuroplasticity movement was another case of emperor’s new clothes. To redress this cruel imbalance – I offer a few pearls from the the neuroplasticity literature with a view to convincing you that despite the various cases of snake oilsmanship out there – brain’s really CAN physically change in a way that propels you positively forward in life, if only you can adopt the appropriate lifestyle.

I am of the opinion that, despite the various setbacks, it is still worth keeping an eye on the research hitting the science press that investigates adult human neuroplasticity. It has such huge potential in terms of motivating people to adopt a more positive lifestyle that I find myself determined to wait for a clearer picture to emerge on this potentially revolutionary insight into the nature of the human brain. So this month’s blog is an update on some of the recent published research investigating the potential for neuroplastic change in the adult human brain.

Musical people were among the first to come under the scrutiny of scientists looking for the tell-tale signs of neuroplastic change in the brains of professional versus amateur musicians (e.g. Gaser and Schlaug, 2003). Since then the timing of the grey matter changes in musicians brains have been captured by Groussard et al (2014). They demonstrated observable changes in the left hippocampus and right superior/middle frontal regions after just a few years, but only after more extensive musical training were further structural changes observed in the right insula, supplementary motor area and left superior temporal cortex. Another recent study demonstrated that pro keyboard players brains exhibit clear differences in the volume of gray matter in brain areas dedicated to:

1) precision control over movements (operating the keyboard, striking correct keys with appropriate timing, rhythm, tempo, expression etc)

2) sound-processing brain areas (enabling efficient conversion of vibrations into the tones, timbres and musical textures we hear in elaborate music)

3) brain regions that monitor where everything is terms of time and space.

In 2017, Amad and colleagues published a paper demonstrating that: not only did the skill level of the participants improve considerably over the course of eight weeks-worth of half-hourly drumming sessions three times per week, but that their brain’s functional connectivity changed significantly too. Specifically, the resting state functional connectivity between a brain area known to be very important in musical perception – the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus – and ALL other brain areas (i.e. every other voxel) increased by a significant margin.

In an interesting tangent in the neuroplasticity research a paper published in 2016 by James Hartzell and colleagues essentially applied the basic logic of the taxi driver study – committing a large amount of information in memory is likely to result in significant brain changes – to a different information domain. Rather than scanning the brains of people who had been engaging in memorising an important body of information for about 2 years, they scanned the brains of people who had been doing it their whole lives. Pandits are Indian scholars who learn 10,000-40,000 word long Sanskrit texts so that they can recite it from memory. They are not just “word perfect” but each word is pronounced absolutely perfectly as well.

While it was not possible to scan them before and after they underwent all those brain changes, and so it is impossible to know for sure whether the various differences in brain structure occurred over the course of training, or whether they were there all along (i.e. they were accepted into Pandit training due to pre-existing aptitude for verbal memorisation), it is still interesting to note the various huge differences observed in the Pandits versus the age-matched, control subject brains. Firstly, they had significantly larger grey matter volumes in the lateral temporal lobes, on both the left and rights sides, both hippocampi were larger than usual and they found enlargements of the tissue across the entire anterior cingulate cortex. That their brains seemed to have undergone such significant changes is perhaps no surprise given how intensive Pandit training is.

Ever since significant differences in cognitive flexibility were found between those who have intensively played action video games compared to a control group who have not (Colzato et al, 2010), the race has been on to find evidence of adult neuroplasticity that might account for these improvements. In 2017, Gong et al published a brain imaging paper where they compared the white matter of hardcore gamers to non-gamers. They found significantly strengthened structural connections between prefrontal, limbic and visual regions known to be involved in cognitive control (e.g. task-switching tasks) and sensorimotor (hand-eye coordination) skills. Another 2017 paper, this time by Schenk and colleagues, showed that the performance of regular video gamers in a “weather prediction” game (a probabilistic learning task) was superior to non-video gamers and this was related to stronger activation of various brain areas involved in semantic memory (hippocampus), visual imagery (precuneus) and cognitive control.

It is still relatively early days when it comes to realising the full potential (and fundamental limitations) of human neuroplasticity. But what seems abundantly clear is that what was once a trickle of relevant papers is turning into something of a stream and as we head into the 2020’s I have no doubt that it will turn into a torrent. That torrent will hopefully be instrumental in helping to propagate the message that, no matter how old we are, there are always things we can do to change the very fabric of our brain in a meaningful fashion that actually improves cognition.

In addition to these monthly blogs I also tweet about interesting neuroscience articles I come across on a regular basis (@drjacklewis). And in spring 2019 I will be launching a new YouTube channel called Virtual Vive Sanity. In each episode I explore a new Virtual Reality realm and share some neuroscientific pearls of wisdom to help everyone optimise their experiences. I feel very strongly that VR has huge potential, not just to provide excellent entertainment, but to accelerate various types of therapy, improve cognitive skills, fitness and well being. This channel aims to introduce newcomers to the basics and to open experienced VR users eyes to its transformational potential, while learning from our encounters with the dark potential of other new technologies to maximise the benefits while reducing the risks. Watch this space…

I used to think that the practice of “mindful meditation” was exclusively the preserve of yogis, Buddhists and New Age hippies fresh back from an extended voyage of self-discovery around Asia. If you’ve ever found yourself caught up in a conversation with an over-enthusiastic traveler fresh back from their adventures you’ll know what I mean. Such folk have usually undergone a wholesale transformation from fairly conventional individuals into barefoot, sandalwood-scented, Thai-dyed, hemp shirt and trousers wearing, bead bracelet bedecked eccentrics who preach the stupidity of capitalism and the supremacy of the compassionate mind-set at any and all available opportunities. My attitude has changed fundamentally in recent months.

A recent review paper (in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, no less) evaluating the flurry of scientific investigations into the possible benefits of practicing mindfulness that have accumulated over the past ten years or so, has given me a fresh perspective. To my surprise it turns out that there is plenty of early evidence attesting to “beneficial effects on physical and mental health; and cognitive performance.”

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Mindfulness is actually a very simple concept to grasp, if only we’d give it a half chance. From the moment we wake to the moment we go back to sleep our minds are cluttered with innumerable thoughts.

These thoughts tend to focus on the past and the future: conversations, experiences and interactions that occurred in the past and hopes, ambitions, fears and other concerns regarding the future. Mindfulness encourages the development of attention directing and emotional regulating capacities that enable us to focus on the present moment. Ultimately, by getting in the habit of focusing on what we target with our conscious awareness, rather than just allowing ourselves to be buffeted by whatever stimuli, thoughts or feelings happen to flicker through our minds, we can achieve a greater self-awareness.

GETTING STARTED

There are many different ways of achieving a mindful brain state but typically the beginner is encouraged to start by focusing on their breath. They are asked to breath deeply, in and out, right into the belly to ensure their diaphragm is being used to full effect. Whilst performing these simple actions they are regularly reminded to bring their attention back to their breath whenever the mind wanders elsewhere, to notice the cool air passing in through the nostrils on the inhale and the warm air passing out again on the exhale. After a few minutes of this, you are usually instructed to re-direct the focus of your attention on different body parts, moving systematically around the body. Notice the feeling of clothing on skin, upward pressure of the floor (or the chair) on your buttocks – move your mind’s eye from your toes, gradually up through the legs, into hips, up your back, across your shoulders and down your arms to your finger tips.

FOCUS AND RE-FOCUS YOUR MIND

When thoughts pop into your head, as they invariably will, the idea is not to block them or force them out, but simply to acknowledge them without engaging too deeply; focusing attention back on your breath, or touch sensations in a certain body part.

It sounds extremely simple (too straightforward to result in any meaningful benefits surely?!) but most of us are ingrained with deeply entrenched habits of thought such as worrying about events in the past or future or perpetually seeking some form of stimulation that it can take a while to achieve the goal of quiet contemplation of bodily sensations for more than 20 or 30 seconds at a time. But for those who stick at it – regularly, intensively and consistently over many weeks and months – and gradually build their ability to stay in this mindful state for 5, 15, 30, 60 mins at a time, a wide variety of benefits are achievable. And the latest neuroscience studies into mindfulness are homing in on what it going on inside the brain as a result of all this practice.

To find out about how mindfulness changes the brain please click here.

If you love science geekery then my weekly science podcast Geek Chic’s Weird Science may well be right up your alley. It’s available on iTunes, audioboom, libsyn and podbay, with the delectable Lliana Bird who presents every Fri and Sat nights on Radio X.

I also regularly share the best of the day’s neuroscience breakthroughs on Twitter so if you’d like to follow me, please click here –> @drjacklewis

In part 1 of this blog I broadly described the benefits of mindfulness and what it involves. Here I dig into the detail, outlining the parts of the brain that appear, on the basis of a recent review of many brain scanning studies, to be most consistently impacted by the regular practice of mindfulness.

 

NEUROPLASTICITY IN ACTION?

Attention

Using MRI scanning to focus on differences in the physical structure of brains has revealed that the anterior cingulate cortex (highlighted in yellow in the below image), often implicated in studies of attention, is physically thicker and the underlying white matter denser in practitioners of mindfulness who are highly experienced as opposed to those who are relatively inexperienced.

Emotional Regulation

Moderate to severe stress is associated with high levels of circulating cortisol (a “stress” hormone). This is associated with increased density in the amygdala (highlighted in red in the below image) – a structure deep within the tips of the left and right temporal lobes and vital for orchestrating rapid responses to perceived danger. Decreased tissue density is observed within several prefrontal regions and the hippocampus – which also resides within the core of the temporal lobes – serving several memory-related functions and vital for many aspects of cognition. Regular practice of mindfulness appears to reverse this. Cognitive impairment is reduced and presumably an increase in synaptic connectivity accounts for the increase in tissue density within the hippocampal / prefrontal cortex. The enlarged amygdala shrink – presumably due to reductions in the number of synaptic connections between neurons in this region – which is also associated with a reduction in anxious feelings /  the attenuation of heightened perception of threat, back down to normal levels.

Self-Awareness

The default mode network (DMN) describes a group of brain areas that are activated in MRI brain scanning studies when participants are “in between tasks”. At first these activations were thought to reflect the brain at “rest” or in “default mode.” After a few more years of research, during which this same set of activations cropped up under circumstances that couldn’t reasonably be described as “restful” the original conclusion was revised. Considering all the studies in which the DMN kicked into action it seemed much more likely that it relates instead to “mind-wandering.”

In the original studies, when the participant was instructed to “rest” they would invariably use this period to self-reflect or daydream about something completely unrelated to the experimental task (I certainly did when I volunteered for various MRI studies – it’s impossible not to – anyone that’s seen Ghostbusters should know that).

A couple of years ago when I conducted a series of interviews (British Neuroscience Conversations) with various big hitting neuroscientists at the British Neuroscience Association’s conference, neuropsychopharmacologist Prof David Nutt pointed out that, if our “ego” or the “self” lives anywhere in the brain the Default Mode Network is the best candidate.

The medial prefrontal cortex (labelled DMPFC for the dorsal/upper part and VMPFC for the ventral/lower part) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), i.e. the core DMN regions, were less active in experienced versus inexperienced mindfulness practitioners. As one of the primary aims of many mediation practices is to selflessly accept thoughts and feelings in a non-judgemental, compassionate way – the reduction in these neural correlates of “ego” may well reflect a degree of success in this endeavour.

So inspired have I been by these revelations of fairly solid early evidence attesting to a likely neuroplastic impact of regular practice of mindful meditation on brain areas involved in modulating attention, emotional responses and perhaps even ego that earlier in the year I went to Mykonos for a retreat to immerse myself properly (opening the invitation to anyone who faniced coming along).

Since then I’ve gone on to develop a #brainboost campaign for Weight Watchers in order to help tackle the obesity epidemic by getting people’s brains ready for healthier eating by practising mindful eating, performing a bit of daily brain training to boost their working memory and learning some simple brain hacks, all with a view to eating more strategically.

During my research for this project I came across a nice little book on mindful eating that I would highly recommend: it’s called Eating Mindfully by Susan Albers. Personally I find a lot of books on this topic extremely cringeworthy, but Susan Albers describes the practical tips on how to avoid mindless / emotional eating through mindfulness in a very straightforward manner.

My own book “Sort Your Brain Out” includes a chapter on the kind of foods and eating habits that are good and bad for the brain. In addition, I do a weekly science podcast available on iTunes, audioboom, libsyn and podbay, with the delectable Lliana Bird who presents every Fri and Sat nights on Radio X. And I regularly share the best of the day’s neuroscience breakthroughs on twitter (@drjacklewis).

Figuring out what I should write about in my blog this month really was a no brainer. It’s not every month that I have a new book about to hit the shelves (Friday 28^th March 2014). So from April onwards, if you happen to be passing a WHSmith’s then please do consider popping in. You should find Sort Your Brain Out prominently displayed in the Non-Fiction and Business charts. If you can’t find it then please drop me a line!

Although we have specifically targeted the business market in the first instance, primarily due to their familiarity with my co-author’s previous work, this truly is a book for everyone. We hope that business professionals will decide that other members of their family would also benefit from reading it and pass it on; whether the recipients are their children – to help them get the most out of their brains to achieve more in their education, or their own parents – to help them get the most out of their brain during the post-retirement years. In fact, the book has been carefully put together to ensure that readers of all ages will be able to get something out of it. Happily we’ve already had some feedback that suggests we have been successful in achieving this goal. If you fancy flicking through a few select pages, or perhaps even pre-order a copy with a 30% discount, then please click here to see it on Amazon.

We are encouraging people to tweet photos of Sort Your Brain Out when they find it in the wild with the hashtag #SortYourBrainOut or #SYBO for short – we’ve been made aware of sightings all over the UK and the world – from Jamaica to Hong Kong and Cornwall to Edinburgh.

This is my first foray into the world of publishing. Strictly speaking it’s the second book I’ve ever written, if you count my Ph.D. thesis. However I doubt whether more than a handful of people have ever pulled it out of the vaults of the University of London library in Senate House. For most readers it would be pretty incomprehensible anyway what with being laden with complex scientific terminology. The whole point of Sort Your Brain Out is to make the latest neuroscience accessible for everyone, not just the science enthusiasts. So with this in mind, for my first published book, it only seemed appropriate to co-author it with someone who has extensive experience in writing books that everyone can get something out of. And a few years back, thanks to a fortunate twist of fate, I met the perfect collaborator.

Adrian Webster and I both contributed as motivational speakers at a conference in Tenerife in 2011,  presenting me with the perfect opportunity to forge an alliance with a truly exceptional individual. An internationally best-selling author, his first book Polar Bear Pirates was a massive hit. It is very unusual to see a business book packed full of cartoon characters, yet this unorthodox approach may well be precisely what made it resonate with such a broad audience. We’ve tried to reproduce this effect with a handful of illustrations commissioned for Sort Your Brain Out. For a sneak preview: click here.

Over more than a decade Adrian has been one of Europe’s most popular and influential motivational speakers. His uncanny ability to spin a yarn in an entertaining yet impactful way, leaving audiences not just spellbound by his performances but also much wiser about how to get the best out of themselves at work is unparalleled. He distils many years of experience in the workplace into witty/moving anecdotes and wise observations about how best to motivate ourselves and those around us. Here’s a quick taste of his speaking style brilliantly animated by some young and very talented animators.

Our book Sort Your Brain Out aims to make what modern neuroscience has discovered about the strengths and weaknesses of human brain function accessible to the broadest possible market. We wanted to provide some powerful insights into how to get the most out of your brain, whoever the reader happens to be. After all, every one of us has a brain, but it doesn’t come with a user guide. So we thought we’d pen a book that illuminates what’s going on within our skulls and what brains need to function optimally. The Sunday Express kindly published an article we wrote to support the launch of the book and the following Monday we got a mention in the Daily Express. We also penned a short article on how to stoke the fires of creativity which you can also read online.

We asked a few kind souls to read the final version before it went to print and were overwhelmed by the positive feedback. Below you’ll find just a small selection of the endorsements we received:

This truly inspiring and fascinating book leaves you never wanting to waste a single second ever again. Everything you need to know about how your brain works and how to maximize it is contained in an easy-to-read way. The book proves you really can do anything and there are lots of simple ways to help ensure you too can make the most of your biggest asset – your brain! Without doubt, a book you cannot be without!”

Dame Sarah Storey, DBE

 

For all the debate about governments nudging people to make better decisions or to adopt better behaviours, it is easy to overlook the fact that we can actually nudge ourselves. This book is a wonderful guide to how to do just that.”

Rory Sutherland

Executive Creative Director and

Vice Chairman, OgilvyOne London

 

I thought it was accessible, thought-provoking and full of useful, easy-to-follow tips about improving your everyday life through a better understanding of the brain.”


Killian Fox

Writer for The Observer and other publications

 

This book explores the kind of topics we all think and talk about: Is the internet making us stupid? What do alcohol and caffeine really do to our brains? It provides you with kind of fascinating nuggets of information you end up reading out to whoever you happen to be with, as well as practical tips on how to maximise what we all have between our ears. Forget brainstorming, it’s all about brainshaking and dunking now. Neuroscience demystified and simplified without being patronising; a must-read.”

Olivia Walmsley

Mail Online

 

A really great book that explains in layman’s terms how the brain works and how you can then translate that knowledge to enhance your own performance. Thought-provoking and insightful, it will add considerable value to anyone still willing to learn, irrespective of which rung of the success ladder they are on. It’s an enjoyable and extremely useful read.”


Mark Hussain

HSBC

 

Sort Your Brain Out is a must-read for everyone. It is a clever and thoughtful book designed to help the lay reader understand more about the brain’s most intimate workings but most importantly it provides erudite yet easily consumed bite-sized gobbets of information on how to improve one’s lobar lot. The fascinating examples are eminently readable and marvellously memorable; the reading of this book will stretch the brain in exactly the way the authors have devised. This is mental stimulation at its best.”


Chantal Rickards

Head of Programming and Branded Content

MEC

 

As someone who has spent their life reviewing neuroscience material, I was struck by how the overview on offer contextualises some aspects of brain function in a novel and refreshing way. In short, this is a delightful and illuminating read – it is the book that I would (will) give my family, when they ask searching questions about neuroscience – and what it means for them.”

Professor Karl Friston FRS

Scientific Director

Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging

University College London

 

Sort Your Brain Out is has clarity of purpose and many features that puts it ahead of its competitors in an expanding area of interest. Making the best use of the amazing brains we all inherit, even though they are destined to operate in a world far removed from the environment that shaped their evolution, is crucial. There probably is no more important a task for us as individuals or for the groups we live and work in than this. Help and the chance to expand our insight is at hand.”

Ian Edwards

Head of Strategy

Advertising Planning firm Vizeum

 

Engaging, accessible, demystifying.”

Dr Daniel Glaser

Director

Science Gallery London

 

If you do decide to purchase a copy we’d be really grateful if you’d find time to review it on Amazon.

We humans have far more control over our environment than any other species on planet Earth. We have developed an innate propensity for making and using tools to such a degree that we can now fundamentally change – through architectural, engineering and scientific innovation – the very environments in which we exist and with which we interact every day.

In modifying places in which we spend thousands of hours: our homes, schools, places of work and leisure – we exert more power than any other species in shaping our own brains.

Iterative cycles of human brains adapting to environments and environments being adapted by human brains have enabled our species to thrive in a wider variety of ecological niches than any other mammal across the length and breadth of the entire globe. Of vital importance to our adaptability is the emergence of cognitive faculties enabling us to circumvent the painstakingly slow processes involved in evolutionary change that drive behavioural adaptations in most other multicellular species.

Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands, for example, had to wait for many generations to evolve a useful adaptation that conferred a survival advantage over their competitors. This is because the vast majority of genetic mutations do not yield any useful, adaptive characteristics. For genetic mutation(s) to result in, say, a beak of appropriate dimensions to access an otherwise inaccessible food source, a great many decades of annual mating must pass before this random process eventually hits the jackpot.

Humans confronted with a similar scenario would likely invent a tool to access the food in question. Offspring, or anyone else for that matter, could then mimic the movements necessary to successfully make and manipulate the tool. This is all thanks to “mirror” neurons, which provide us with our natural ability to convert observed movements into movements that we perform ourselves (In his TED talk VS Ramachandran describes the importance of mirror neurons quite beautifully). Behavioural adaptation through tool use is thus not, unlike genetic adaptation, limited to being spread down through subsequent generations.

Humans are not the only creature to use tools. New Caledonian crows are top of the pecking order when it comes to birds intelligent enough to use tools. They use a variety of different tools and in the appropriate sequential order, to obtain a food reward that would otherwise be beyond their reach. Each bird is clever enough to figure this out for themselves, or at least to learn from others, but their capacity to propagate this information beyond their immediate habitat is prohibited by a lack of sufficiently sophisticated communication tools.

Chimpanzees strip the leaves off of long straight sticks to use the resulting tool as a means to “fish” for termites in a termite mound. However, as E. O. Wilson famously pointed out: non-human primates do not have the necessary intelligence to prepare a neat stack of fishing sticks the night before. Non-human species only make and use tools as and when they are needed. In more recent times exceptions to this rule have been observed.

It was long thought that we humans were the only species with sufficient foresight to predict the need for certain tools in the future and to prepare them in advance. However a chimpanzee residing in a Scandinavian zoo turned this assumption on its head by building a stack of stones in the morning to hurl at visitors later on once the zoo had opened to the public!

That said, we still enjoy the unique status of being the only species able to share knowledge of making and using tools through verbal or written communication. This has propagated knowledge of all sorts of tools way beyond our own communities, to other members of our species across the entire globe – eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel and build upon the creativity of others.

Arguably the kings of tool use (homo sapiens exluded) are surely the bonobos. The below footage shows our closest primate cousin making tools out of stone, just as our caveman ancestors did, and using them to perform a variety of scraping, cutting and boring purposes.

In addition to these monthly brainblogs you can catch my daily #braintweet several times a day by following me on Twitter.

Rats fed high fructose corn syrup supplement navigate a maze significantly slower than others fed normal rat feed: click here for full article. Researchers suspect that the increase in insulin that results from high blood sugars may be to blame. In the body insulin serves to instigate biochemical process by which the sugar is taken out of the blood and put into storage. Yet although insulin can get into the brain, there no room there for excess sugars to be stored and so its role in the brain is not well understood. It is thought that elevated levels of insulin induced by the ingestion of sugary foods somehow interferes with the mechanisms of learning.
Whatever the cause of this disruption to the brain apparatus for maze navigation – a highly cognitively demanding ability – the study also observed that rats fed flax seed oil, a source of the essential fatty acid: omega 3, were protected from the debilitating effects of a high sugar diet.
And what does this mean to you? Stop stuffing your face with sweets, fizzy pop, cake and other snack foods high in quick release simple sugars. They cause your blood sugars to roller coaster in the following way:
1) large quantities of insulin are released (from your pancreas) to bring blood glucose levels back down to safe levels (by putting it into storage – ultimately as fat surrounding organs and under the skin).
2) Very high levels of insulin will often remove too much glucose from the blood – leading to hypoglycaemia.
3) Very low blood glucose levels detected in the brain (the hypothalamus, if you’re interested) triggers feelings of hunger and food seeking behaviours, which invariably entice modern man into a hunt for snack foods. These of course usually comprise high sugar foods sending blood sugars rocketing (please go back to stage 1).
It has been known for some time that the beta cells of the pancreas, which produce and release insulin, get worn out through overuse and that the insulin receptors doing the bidding of this life-saving hormone become increasingly unresponsive after decades of overuse resulting in diabetes, obesity and ultimately heart complications. What is new here is the suggestion that even before all that damage is even done the high levels of circulating insulin might be blunting our cognitive capacities.
How to avoid the sugar roller coaster?
Slow release carbohydrates. Eat porridge for breakfast and vegetables, fruit, wholegrain-rich meals for lunch and dinner so that all the carbohydrates aren’t dumped immediately into your blood stream – but instead are gradually released over the course of hours rather than minutes.
Not only will this help to protect against diet-related diabetes and obesity, but it will stabalise mood AND it seems from this latest research – improve your cognitive abilities to boot.
In addition to these brainblogs you can follow me on Twitter and if you like the sound of this Brain Optimisation Principle then why not book a Brain Coach Live seminar so I can share the other BOPs I’ve accumulated over 15 years of studying the brain.

BBC study slams brain training – but don’t throw your Nintendo DS away just yet…

Since Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training (UK) / Brain Age (US) game was launched on the Nintendo DS in 2005 a great buzz has been generated by the enticing prospect of sharpening up our mental faculties. Indeed, claims that it can improve memory, make us smarter, sharpen reaction times and improve general brain power have convinced over 3 million of us in the UK alone to buy this game (including me! – I’m in the process of writing a review on it, so watch this space). Then, in 2007, Lumos Labs launched “Lumosity” – a web-based, subscriber-accessed, brain training program with an ever-expanding range of colourful and engaging brain training games. Just one year later Lumos labs managed to attract $3,000,000 in private investment to further develop their cognitive training offerings. Brain training has become a billion dollar global industry.

In a previous blog I suggested that there is nothing special about each individual brain training game – I argued that the same benefits would be achieved by picking up a puzzle book containing number games, word puzzles and problem solving tasks on a daily basis:

http://www.drjack.co.uk/brain-teasers-brain-training/

However what these commercial offerings do provide is a structured training program, consisting of a wide variety of different games and puzzles, the opportunity to measure and keep track of your progress and the convenience that might encourage you to train for long enough and regularly enough to notice some benefits. The only problem is that in the 5 years since these games were launched there has not been a single shred of independent evidence (to my knowledge) that these games actually benefit brain functions useful in everyday life, rather than just the inevitable performance improvements in the games themselves. We already know that practice makes perfect. There have been reports that brain training works – but these studies were invariably linked to the very companies that had a vested interest in such findings.

Doubts started to be voiced in early 2009, for instance, Which? magazine assembled a panel of experts who concluded that Brain Training on the DS had no “functional impact on life whatsoever”. By the autumn of 2009 the BBC had clocked that is was high time that the concept of Brain Training was put to the test and set the “biggest brain training experiment ever” in motion – an independent clinical trial the results of which would be published in a suitable peer-reviewed journal. They asked distinguished scientists from the University of Cambridge (Dr Adrian Owen, MRC Cambridge Brain Unit) and King’s College London (Professor Clive Ballard, director of research for the Alzheimer’s Society) to design a suitable experiment involving 11,000 participants, which ultimately led to the conclusion that “Brain Training Games Don’t Make Us Smarter”:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/results/braintestbritain/1_results_summary.html

However, lack of proof of a brain training effect is not the same as proving beyond all reasonable doubt that brain training doesn’t work. At the bottom of this piece is a list of 5 reasons why the results of Bang Goes the Theory’s Lab UK study does not necessarily mean that brain training on consoles like the Nintendo DS is ineffective. These are centred around the following facts: they created their own games rather than using commercially-available ones (maybe their games were not as effective?), they required people to train only 3 times per week (maybe it would have worked with a more intense training regime?) and the games involved people sitting at a PC using mouse and keypad to register responses (i.e. they missed out on the technological advances of touch screen and voice recognition in the Nintendo DS). They have certainly demonstrated that the games they created, when played infrequently, across a relatively short period of time, using an outdated user control interface (that slows down the speed at which responses can be made in time-critical games), did not lead to improvements in a separate set of ‘benchmarking’ games that may or may not have been sensitive enough to detect improvements in attention, memory and problem solving skills. However, their failure to detect any improvements whatsoever (in the under 60’s at least) could boil down to any of these factors or more likely a combination of them. I’m not suggesting for a minute that these results are invalid. All I’m saying is that the proverbial jury is out regarding the putative efficacy of brain training – we must wait until more evidence has been gathered before potentially throwing the brain-train-baby out with the bathwater.

The compromises that they had to make in order to pull off such a large clinical trial are inevitable, but may have hampered their ability to capture any discernible effect. In order to get such large numbers of people to participate they clearly needed to avoid requiring people to give up their time too often and for an unnecessarily protracted period of time; otherwise people would have dropped out of the trial like flies. What led them to create their own games, rather than testing existing ones, may have involved the desire to avoid the potential wrath of powerful multinational companies. Even if they had been brave enough to wish to test the actual games to which the claims were attached the BBC would never have got away with wasting license fee payers money by coughing up the cash to issue each of these volunteers with a Nintendo DS – even if it would mean benefiting from the advances of speed-enhancing touch screen and voice-recognition technologies. Yet until further clinical trials, including some that investigate the potential of brain training in a way that gives it the best possible chance to shine, have confirmed or contradicted the current findings – I myself will not be throwing my DS away just yet.

If I was Nintendo I would wish to tackle this issue head on. I would ask an independent scientific body to find a suitable group of research scientists who could conduct a fully independent study totally uncorrupted by any conflicts of interest. This group should together combine a thorough understanding of the human brain with specific experience in measuring the cognitive abilities of healthy individuals – perhaps an education specialist, an occupational psychologist and a neuroscientist. They would oversee a further large-scale, independent, clinical trial that implements a more intense training program based on the best brain training game in the Nintendo DS armoury. I would develop a battery of tests that are able to capture improvements in brain function that actually come in useful during everyday life, as opposed to performance improvements in a rather arbitrary batch of computer games.  For instance, if a person’s ability to tot up the cost of a batch of 10 items in a shopping basket improves as a result of intense brain training, they will be better able to spot when a cashier over or under charges them at the till and it would become possible to confidently state that they have benefited from the brain training in a meaningful way. If they are better able to remember a route on a map after training, then they will be less likely to suffer the stress and inconvenience of getting lost. If they are better able to pay attention to and ultimately recall verbal instructions, in an environment containing a cacophony of visual and acoustic distractions, then the benefits from brain training may actually help them in real life. To ensure participants stay with the program to the very end I would incentivise the much more intense training regime with cash rewards e.g. if they successfully completed 1 month of 2×30 minute training sessions per day they would receive a cash bonus, 2 months and they get a double cash bonus plus a further prize and if they complete the full 3 months they would get a quadrupled cash bonus. I would dish out 10,000 Nintendo DS consoles to individuals who would benefit most from the alleged cognitive improvements that are expected to occur – the chronically unemployed perhaps. That way, whether or not any improvements in cognitive function was detected, any improvement in the employment status of these 10,000 compared to a control group of another randomly selected 10,000 (who have also been receiving job seekers allowance for a prolonged period), would give Nintendo a possible second bite of the cherry by demonstrating a generic improvement in motivation levels and the power to benefit society as a whole. In addition to the milestone incentives, if they did look to keep unemployed hands and minds busy, it might also help to improve brain training dedication by dangling a carrot over the “high score leader board” – whereby those that achieve the best scores overall could be given paid work experience in a role that utilises the skills tapped by each specific game. Just think of the headlines: “Intense Brain Training DOES Improve Mental Abilities AND Gets The Chronically Unemployed Back Into Work”

Get Dr Jack Lewis’s daily #braintweet by following him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/DrJackLewis

5 Potential Flaws with the Lab UK Brain Training Study:

1. At least 3 times per week for 6 weeks
   1. POTENTIAL FLAW: the training regime is very sparse. In other words not surprising that there was no significant improvement because it didn’t tax the participants brains hard enough to benefit memory, planning, problem solving etc.
   2. REASONING: I would expect multiple training sessions EACH AND EVERY DAY to be necessary for significant improvements because the brain is only likely to invest resources in building better lines of communication between brain areas supporting a certain function if it is really needed (i.e. often used)
   3. SOLUTION: a commuter training regime – twice per day (on bus or train) on the way to and from work or school. Perhaps longer sessions at the weekend.
   4. BONUS: using dead time when people would otherwise be staring into space – even if it doesn’t translate into long term improvements such a brain training regime definitely helps to wake up a sleepy brain (it works for me!!)

1. Brain training transfer to other brain skills like memory, planning or problem solving
   1. POTENTIAL FLAW: improvements in memory, planning or problem solving may have occurred but were not successfully detected
   2. REASONING: the selected tests may not have been sensitive enough to detect subtle improvements that occur with such a sparse training regime.
   3. SOLUTION: use more sensitive tests or increase frequency of training.

1. Choice of brain training games
   1. POTENTIAL FLAW: brain training games may not have been sufficiently taxing to elicit significant improvements
   2. REASONING: the games were not those used by Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training and so the results of this experiment might not be applicable
   3. SOLUTION: perform a study using the actual Nintendo DS game and console.

1. No improvement in PC-based brain training games compared to just using the internet
   1. POTENTIAL FLAW: this does not capture the ability of the Nintendo DS to do brain training on-the-go, nor voice activated responses, nor faster responses enabled by touch screen technology – scribbling a letter/number or tapping at a certain location.
   2. REASONING: portability of Nintendo naturally lends itself to more intense training regime, writing on touch screen lends itself to faster responses than a keypad or mouse, voice activation allows verbal responses i.e. exercises different brain areas.
   3. SOLUTION: compare brain training games on Nintendo DS to normal games on Nintendo DS in order to take these important issues into account.

1. Further investigation into effects of brain training in 60+ year olds
   1. POTENTIAL FLAW: Brain training must have shown some promise in the elderly yet it’s reported negatively to fit into “BRAIN TRAINING DOESN’T WORK” headline
   2. REASONING: Usually studies inflate even weak results to justify the study. Here they seem to want the negative findings and hence the improvements in the elderly are downplayed until further investigation.
   3. BONUS: Clearly you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!