Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “mind”
How often do you feel exhausted and lack energy despite having spent a long time sat down not really doing anything physical? I bet it is quite often as it happens to us all. How often do you wish you were able to get your energy back? For years I was looking for the answer to this question and as …
In this engaging lecture the speaker Eleanor Maguire explains through demonstrations some of the peculiarities of memory to show that we often do not remember things exactly as they occurred yet we often believe we do. I learnt a lot about human memory years ago at school and it has stuck with me ever since because I know what it …
Oh my am I loving this lecture from the royal institute and Daniel Dennett. It is bringing to life so many of the thoughts and ideas I have had over the years of learning how humans work. How the brain works is just such a fascinating topic and Daniel has taken a unique and engaging approach to presenting his ideas. …
If you have not heard of Carol Dweck’s work on the Growth mindset, then you are missing out. I learned about the growth mindset in my teens, and I have used it ever since in almost every success I have ever had. The principle is simple, and in fact, so is the implementation, which is why it is one of …
I have a ton of research and links on this site about the brain, mind, brain health, sleep and so many other things brain related but I do not have a central introductory post on the brain that acts as a starting point links to everything else. So here it is. Even writing this basic stub I notice how much …
How and why we move is a fascinating topic. We have long known that muscle movement is coordinated through systematically triggering muscles. The trigger pattern determines the type of movement produced. New research has uncovered how this pattern is widespread throughout the brain structures involved with movement. Synchrony is critical for the proper functioning of the brain. Synchronous firing of …
In the last post I asked Why train your nerves? It was a precursor to explaining the value of a healthy and strong nervous system to athletic performance. In fact it is little known that the reason sedentary people improve so much when they begin exercising is because their nervous system adapts very quickly. The reason for the inevitable plateau is …
For many years I’ve noticed the forgotten aspect of training your nervous system and the adaptations it makes to support your activity underpins all the improvements you see. I read a beautiful research article named how brain cells change their tune and I felt it was time to explain mytheory that learning a skill depends on training our nerves.
Everyone seems to assume that your mind must degrade with age. I’ve never seen convincing evidence for that. I simply see that increasing age requires increasing maintenance since our parts and code get old. In otherwords, You are only as old as the lifestyle you live. So it is that I am good at finding evidence that shows this to …
So, It’s Not Memory Loss – Older Minds May Just Be Fuller of Information is the kind of finding that makes sense to me. I’ve met plenty of older peeps whose memory is just fine. They can remember all sorts of stuff they do regularly. though as you would expect, they can get confused by all the other information they have to …
Why animals sleep remains one of the enduring mysteries of biology, but new research suggests the primary reason might be to allow cerebrospinal fluid to wash all the gunk out from between your brain cells. Read more The researchers interpretation is that this is literally a cleaning process after a busy day. I would wonder if it’s also a restocking …
Reading a gripping novel causes biological changes in the brain which last for days as the mind is transported into the body of the protagonist The new research, carried out at Emory University … found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory. Read …
I’ve been meaning to write this article for a long time but never felt I had the time to do it justice. Now I just feel I have waited too long so I need to put my first draft together and then build it over time. A recent article Size, connectivity of brain region linked to anxiety level in young children is …
I understand that our brains can only obtain energy from sugar. The can’t get it from protein and fat like the rest of our body. So when I found an article considering How much glucose does your brain actually need? I knew I needed to make a record for future reference. This is something I learnt through bio psychology and my PE …
During A level PE I learnt about the concept of transfer of learning. The principle that once you have learnt a skill in one area it is easier to learn it in another. Footballers use this concept to play well with both feet. Once they learn to play with their dominant foot they find it easier to learn with their …
I just came across this beautifully written article The boy whose brain could unlock autism and I am totally captivated so I had to share it. My long term dream is to see a Virtual Human created so wee can all understand the wonder of ourselves in amazing depth. This article not only introduces a whole new theory on the brain …
Lack of physical activity is now accepted as a serious health risk and the evidence shows that our brains need as much activity as our bodies do to keep them fit and healthy. The amount of research showing this link is becoming over whelming so I have share a few of my favourites to help you quickly understand how beneficial good movement can …
My philosophy is that ‘The way you think defines what you achieve‘. By that I mean that your philosophy determines the decisions you make to any given situation and thus the outcomes you can expect. It is through these decisions that you define the life and accomplishments that you end up with. Of course there are other factors but I …
I’m excited to have just discovered Neural Darwinism through an interview with Gerald Edelman on all in the mind. The idea that our brain constantly adapts to our environment using the same evolutionary principles described by Darwin is what I’ve been coming to believe. It’s clear that we create and remove connections every day during sleep and that our brains are constantly evolving from the …
I just found a post I really had to comment on. Couldn’t find a way to link it back here so just thought I’d do it myself. The question was Does the human body crave the foods it requires? (Unfortunately the article I linked to no longer exists) Good point I thought. So I went on a little tirade that …