The Mind Spread

8/18/2019 The Mind Spread

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A USER’S GUIDE TO

114 | NewScientist: TheCollection| TheHumanBrain

C H A P T E R N I N E

The human mind is the most complex information processingsystem we know. It has all sorts of useful design features butalso many glitches and weaknesses. The problem is, it doesn’tcome with a user’s manual. You just have to plug and play.

But if anyone knows how to get the best out of our brains, it’sneuroscientists. So we asked some of the best to explain howthe human brain performs many of its most useful functionsand how to use them to the max. By Caroline Williams

1on bottom-up distractions byoff email notifications, puttinphone on silent and so on, Na cognitive neuroscientist at UCollege London, suggests actgiving your brain more to do

Lavie’s work has shown thacontrol o top-down attentionot by reducing the number but by increasing them. Her lsays that once the brain reachlimit o sensory processing it anything else in, including d

This seems to work or botdistractions and mind wandeLavie. In real lie, she suggesabout adding visual aspects tthat make it more attention-g without making it more diffi

putting a colourul boarder ablank document and makingyou are working on purple, pIt works with all the senses, sso choosing somewhere withbackground noise might also

There are also signs that cotraining might help. Research working with people with attdeficit hyperactivity disorderand brain injuries have oundcognitive training combined invasive magnetic brain stimcan improve ocus on a task tsustained attention.

Wider studies are under winitial results seem to suggesriht kind o brain training comore or less anyone.

While we wait, the next be

is learning to chill out in exaright way. Long-term meditabeen shown to have thicker pbrain associated with attentiother studies have ound thatest scores improved afer a scourse o meditation. So learto ocus better may be as simmaking time to sit still and onot very much.

“Top-down attention is proneto losing focus,or being rudely

interrupted”

Almost every useul eature o yourbrain begins with attention. Attentiondetermines what you are consciouso at any given moment, and socontrolling it is just about the mostimportant thing that the brain can do.

To make any sense o the worldaround us we need to filter outalmost everything and ocus solelyonwhat is relevant. Not only that,but ocused attention is essentialor learning or memorising. So itollows that i you can boost yourability to pay attention, you canimprove at almost anything.

In simple terms, the brain has twoattention systems. One, the“bottoms up” system, automaticallysnaps awareness to potentially

important new inormation, suchas moving objects, sudden noisesor sensations o touch. The systemis ast, unconscious and always on(at least when you are awake).

The other, the “top down” system,is deliberate, ocused attention, whichzooms in on whatever we need to thinkabout, and, hopeully, stays there longenough to get the job done. This is theorm o attention that is useul ordoing tasks that require concentration.

Unortunately distractibility comesas both a bug and adesign eature. Top-down attention requires effort and sois prone to losing ocus, or being rudelyinterrupted by the bottom-up system.

The good news is that we can tweakour attention settings to stay ocusedmore easily. As well as cutting down

THE MIND

M A K E T H E M O S T O F I T

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ATTENTION

WORKINGMEMORY

LOGICAL& RATIONALTHOUGHT

LEARNING

KNOWLEDGE

CREATIVITY

INTELLIGENCE

1ATTENTION

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N I G E L S U S S M A N



Like attention, working

memory is one o the brain’s

most crucial ront-line

unctions. Everything you

know and remember,

whether it’s an event, a skill

or a ascinating act, started

its journey into storage by going

through your working memory.

But working memory is much

more than just a clearing house or

long-term memories. It has been

described as the brain’s scratch pad:

the place where inormation is held

and manipulated. I you are doing

anything that requires effortul,

ocused thought, you are using your

working memory.

In the 1970s, Alan Baddeley and

Graham Hitch o the University o York, UK, came up with an inluential

model to explain how the system

works. The main component is the

executive controller, which runs the

show by ocusing your attention on

the relevant inormation.

It also kicks “slave” systems into

action. One o these holds up to our

pieces o visual inormation at a

time; another can memorise about

2 seconds o sound, especially

spoken words, which it loops over

and over again (think o mentally

repeating a phone number while you

search or a pen). The third is the

episodic buffer, which adds relevant

inormation rom long-term memory.

A weakness o this model is that

working memory doesn’t occupya discrete brain area that can be

watched in action in a brain scanner.

Because o this, some cognitive

neuroscientists have suggested that

it might not be a separate system

at all, but just the part o long-term

memory that we are currently paying

attention to.

Whatever it is, working memory

comes as a standard in the human

brain, but some people have better

working memories than others.

Working memory capacity is a

better predictor o academic success

than IQ, so getting the most out o it

is useul.

The good news is that the system

can probably be upgraded. Some

studies have shown that brain

training programmes aimed

speciically at working memory

can produce improvements, and

there are even a handul o training

packages on the market. But it’s not

clear whether they make you better

at anything other than working

memory tests.

Cognitive neuroscientist Jason

Chein o Temple University in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, whostudies working memory, says

there seems to be evidence o

improvements in other cognitive

skills, although any changes are

quite small. “A small effect may

still be important in the sense

that even modest gains can have

a meaningul impact on everyday

cognition,” he says.

3 LOGICAL ANDRATIONAL THOUGH2WORKING MEMORY

“There is a kernel of truth in thepopular wisdom

that left brain equals logic”

“Even modest gains in workingmemory can

improve general cognition”

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We like to think o ourselves as rational

and logical creatures. And so we can

be – but not without some effort.

Logical thought requires us to behave

like a microprocessor, executing stepwise

operations on inormation using the rules

o logic. This doesn’t come naturally to

most people, requiring outside instruction

to learn and lengthy training to maser.

Even then, we struggle to maintain a

purely rational perspective.

It turns out that there is a kernel o

truth in the popular wisdom that “lef

brain equals logic”. Imaging studies have

shown that the lef prerontal cortex is

needed to make logical trains o thought

happen and, a lot o the time, no input is

needed rom the right.

But when there is conlict between

what seems logical and belies we already

hold, the right side o the prerontal

cortex kicks in to help sort out the

conusion. Unortunately, the right

hemisphere usually wins. Study afer

study has shown that where new

inormation conlicts with existing

belies, out brains bend over backwards to

keep belies intact rather than revise

them.

Another surprise is that, contrary

to popular wisdom, emotions aren’t

necessarily the enemy o rationality.

People who have damage to the part

o the prerontal cortex that processes

emotions struggle to make decisions

at all, especially when there is no logical

advantage to either option (or more on

the mind-body connection, see “Your

clever body”, page 100).So embracing our not-particularly

logical gut eelings about decisions might

actually help us make more rational

choices. But not always: other studies

have shown that strong emotions can

interere with making rational decisions,

particularly when they concern people

we love.

Other than hard graf – and an

appreciation o the role o belie and

emotion – is there anything we can do

to become more logical?

Vinod Goel, a cognitive psychologist

at York University in Toronto, Canada,

says that a zap to the head might one

day help. “Brain stimulation techniques

may eventually offer a route to improving

reasoning,” he says. His team recently

used a similar approach to enhance

creative thought and, he says, “one

can imagine the same techniques being

used to enhance out ability or logical

reasoning”. As yet, though, there is no

shortcut. For now, he says, practice is your

best option. Recent studies have shown

that a ew months training in rational

thought, as part o law degree training,

increased the number o connections

between rontal and parietal lobes and

between the two hemispheres. The catchis, without regular practice this effect

would almost certainly ade a ew

months afer the course ended.



LEARNING4 5 K N O W L E D G E

6“There seems to be no limit tothe knowledge

that can fit into a brain”

CREATIV

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Learning is what your brain does naturally.In act, it has been doing it every waking

minute since about a month beore you were

born. It is the process by which you acquire

and store useul (and useless) inormation

and skills. Can you make it more efficient?

The answer lies in what happens

physically as we learn. As it processes inormation,

the brain makes and breaks connections, growing

and strengthening the synapses that connect

neurons to their neighbours, or shrinking them

back. When we are actively learning, the making

o new connections outweighs the breaking o old

ones. Studies in rats have shown that this rewiring

pricess can happen very quickly – within hours o

learning a skill such as reaching through a hole to

get a ood reward. And in some parts o the brain,

noteably the hippocampus, the brain grows new

brain cells as it learns.

But once a circuit is in place, it needs to be usedi it is going to stick. This largely comes down to

myelination – the process whereby a circuit that

isstimulated enough times grows a coat o atty

membrane. This membrane increases conduction

speed, making the circuit work more efficiently.

What, then, is the best way to learn things and

retain them? The answer won’t come as a huge

surprise to anyone who has been to school: ocus

attention, engage working memory and then, a bit

later, actively try to recall it.

Alan Baddeley o the University o York, UK, says it is

a good idea to test yoursel in this way as it

causes your brain to strengthen the new connection.

He also suggests consciously trying to link new bits o

inormation to what you already know. That makes

the connection more stable in the brain and lesslikely to waste away through underuse.

The learning process carries on or lie, so why is

it so much harder to learn when we reach adulthood?

The good news is that there seems to be no physiological

reason or the slowdown. Instead, it seems to be a lot to

do with the act that we simply spend less time learning

new stuff, and when

we do, we don’t do it with the same potent mix

o enthusiasm and attention as the average child.

Part o the problem seems to be that adults

know too much. Research by Gabriele Wul at the

university o Nevada, Las Vegas, has shown that

adults tend to learn a physical skill, like hitting a

gol ball, by ocusing on the details o the movement.

Children, however, don’t sweat the details, but

experiment in getting the ball to go where they

want. When Wul taught adults to learn more like

kids, they picked up skills much aster.

This also seems to be true or learning inormation. As adults we have a vast store o mental shortcuts

that allow us to skip over details. But we still have the

capacity to learn new things in the same way as

children, which suggests that i we could resist the

temptation to cut corners, we would probably learn a

lot more.

A more tried-and-tested method is to keep active.

Ageing leads to the loss o brain tissue, but this

may have a lot to do with how little we hare about

compared with youngsters. With a little exercise, the

brain can spring back to lie. In one study, 40 minutes

o exercise three times a week or a year increased the

size o the hippocampus – which is crucial or learning

and memory. It also improved connectivity across the

brain, making it easier or new things to stick.

One o the brain’s most useuleatures is the ability to absorbpieces o inormation and makeconnections between them.Knowledge really is power: a littlecan be a dangerous thing andthe more you know the betterequipped you are to deal with lie.

But what exactly is knowledge?How are acts stored, organisedand recalled when needed?

Knowledge obviously relies

on memory – in particular thetype o memory that storesgeneral inormation aboutobjects, places, acts and people,known as semantic memory.This is the part o memory whichknows that Paris is the capital oFrance, a constitutional republicin western Europe – but not thepart which stores memories o a weekend break there.

Knowledge isn’t so much about what inormation you store ashow you organise it to create arich and detailed understandingo the world that connectseverything you know.

The sight o a dog, or example,automatically activates otherbits o inormation about dogs:how they look, smell, soundand move, the act that they aredomesticated wolves, the nameso similar dogs you know, andyour eelings about dogs.

How the brain achieves thisgargantuan eat is ar rom clear. A recent proposal is that it hasa “hub” that tags categoriesto everything we know and

encounter, allowing us to connectrelated things.

In 2003, Tim Rogers, acognitive psychologist now atthe University o Wisconsin-Madison, proposed the anteriortemporal lobe (ATL) as the hub.The ATL is badly affected inpeople with semantic dementia, who progressively lose theirknowledge o the meanings o words and objects but retaintheir skills and autobiographicalmemories. Experiments sincethen have backed this up – whenthe ATL is temporarily knocked

out by a small electromagneticpulse, people lose the ability toname objects and understand themeanings o words.

Rogers says that withoutthis system we would spend alot o time being conused abouthow things fit together. “How would you iner, or instance,that when making a collage withyour kids, i you run out o stickytape you can use the glue stickinstead?” he says. “The tape isnot similar to the glue stick inits shape, colour or how you useit. You need a representationthat specifies similarity o kind.”

The good news is that thereseems to be no limit to the

knowledge hat can fit into abrain. As ar as we know no onehas ever run out o storage space.

But it seems you can knowtoo much. Michael Ramscarat Tubingen University inGermany reckons that anyone who lives long enough eventuallyhits that point just by virtue oa lietime’s knowledge. Hesuggests that cognitive skillsslow down with age not becausethe brain withers but becauseit is so ull. And that – like anoverused hard drive – takeslonger to sif through.

J.K. Rowling has said that theidea or Harry Potter popped

into her head while she was

stuck on a very delayed train.

We have all had similar –

although probably less

lucrative – “aha” moments,

where a lash o inspiration

comes along out o the blue.

Where do they come rom?

And is there any way to order

them on demand?

Experiments led by John

Kuonios, a neuroscientist

at Drexel University in

Philadelphia, suggests that

the reason we aren’t all

millionaire authors is that

some brains come better set

up or creativity than others.EGG measurements taken

while people were thinking

about nothing in particular

revealed naturally higher

levels o right hemisphere

activity in the temporal lobes

o people who solved

problems using insight rather

than logic. Kounios says

recent work hints that this

brain eature might be

inherited, but even i you

happen to have a more

ocused, less creative brain,

there are plenty o general

tips on how to get it into

creative mode.

Boringly, the irst is to

put in the groundwork tobuild up a good store o

inormation so that the

unconscious has something to

work with. Studies on

subliminal learning have

poured cold water on the

idea that knowledge can drif

into the brain without any

conscious effort, so it pays to

ocus intently on the details

o the problem uare saely stored

this stage, anyth

helps with ocus

caffeine, should

Once that’s ta

it’s time to cultiv

relaxed, positive

taking a break t

something comp

different – like w

ew entertaining

Studies where p

either watched a

ilm or a thriller

coming up with

have shown tha

and happy mod

conductive to id

tense and anxioonly that, but it

down the ocus

and the easiest w

that is to look o

your brain is too

ocus properly. A

showed that mo

people had thei

creative ideas la

while night owls

early in the mor

Mental exhau

might be a more

state o mind th

when an import

is looming, but i

are still reusing

there may one d

easier solution. stimulation stud

activity was boo

right temporal l

suppressed in th

increased the ra

problem-solving

cent. So the stre

o the uture mig

pop on a “thinki

help those juices



7INTELLIGENCEAND FINALLY:

THE RIGHT TIME?

“If you want think creati

morninggrogginess

can be good

“Like it or not, we get more like our close family

members as weget older”

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Intelligence hasalways been tricky toquantiy, not leastbecause it seems toinvolve most o thebrain and so isalmost certainly not

one “thing”. Even so, scoresacross different kinds o IQtests have long shown thatpeople who do particularly well – or badly – on oneseem to do similarly on all.This can be crunched intoa single general intelligenceactor, or “g”, whichcorrelates pretty well withacademic success, income,health and liespan.

So more intelligence isclearly a good thing, but where does it come rom? A large part o the answerseems to be genetics. In1990, the firs twin studiesshowed that the IQ scoreso identical twins raisedapart are more similar toeach other those o non-identical twins raisedtogether. Since then, a ewgenes have been linked toIQ, but all o them seem tohave a tiny effect and thereare probably thousandsinvolved (or more on this,see Chapter 3, page 42).

That doesn’t mean theenvironment plays nopart, at least in childhood.While the brain isdeveloping, everythingrom diet to education andstimulation plays a hugepart in developing thebrain structures neededor intelligent thought.Children with a bad dietand poor education may

never ulfil their geneticpotential.

But even or educatedand well-ed children, theeffects o environment wear off over time. Byadulthood, genes accountor 60 to 80 per cent o thevariance in intelligencescores, compared with lessthan 30 per cent in youngchildren. Like it or not, we

get more like our closeamily members the older we get.

So i genes play such abig part, is there anythingadults can do to improveIQ? The good news is thatone type o intelligencekeeps on improvingthroughout lie. Mostresearchers distinguishbetween fluid intelligence, which measures the abilityto reason, learn and spot

patterns, and crystallisedintelligence, the sum o allour knowledge so ar. Fluidintelligence slows down with age, but crystallisedintelligence doesn’t. So while we all get a littleslower to the party as we get older, we can restassured that we are stillgetting cleverer.

The brain is a ickle least – at some times

as sharp as a tack, at others like a uzzy ball

o wool. At least some o that variation can

be explained by luctuations in circadian

rhythms, which means that, in theory, i you

do the right kind o task at the right time o day,

lie should run a little more smoothly.

The exact timing o these luctuations

varies by about 2 hours between morning

and evening types, so it is difficult to give any

one-size-its-all advice. Nevertheless there area ew rules that it’s worth bearing in mind

whatever your natural waking time.

It’s an idea not to do too much that

involves razor-sharp ocus in the irst couple

o hours afer waking up. Depending on how

much sleep you have had it can take anything

rom 30 minutes to 4 hours to shake off

sleep inertia – also known as morning

grogginess. I you want to think creatively,

though, groggy can be good (see “Creativity”,

page 119).

I hard work can’t wait, though, the good

news is that researchers have backed up

what most o us already know – a dose o

caffeine helps you shake off sleep inertia and

get on with some work.

Another tip is to time your mental

gymnastics to coincide with luctuations in

body temperature. Studies measuring variationin everything rom attention and verbal

reasoning to reaction times have shown that

when our core temperature dips below 37°C

the brain isn’t at its best.

By this measure, the worst time to do

anything involving thinking is, unsurprisingly,

between midnight and 6am. It is almost as bad

in the afernoon slump between 2pm and 4pm,

which has more to do with body temperature

than lunch – studies o people who have no

lunch or just a small one have the same

problem. All in all, the best time to get stuck in

is between mid-morning and noon and then again

between 4pm and 10pm.

There may be a way to hack the system,

though. Studies have shown that body

temperature changes and alertness also

work independently o the internal clock, so

a well-timed bit o exercise or hot shower canwork wonders.

Competitive sports, though, are worth

leaving until the end o the day. Studies have

shown that reaction times and hand-eye

coordination get progressively better throughout

the day, reaching a peak at around 8pm.

Afer that, there’s time or a little more

ocused energy beore the body cools down,

the brain slows and there’s nothing more to do

with it but dream.

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