What’s not to like about easier homework, better grades, a new love for reading plus results within weeks? Check out one mom’s reflection on how LearningRx made school—and life—easier for her daughter. Click on Learning Rx Real-Life Comments to read her review.
Workaholics work longer hours. That means their brains are active more hours of the day, right? That must mean they have sharper mental skills, right?
Wrong.
In fact, the opposite appears to be true. Research has linked longer work hours with weaker mental skills. In fact, one study of 2,214 middle-aged civil servants concluded that employees working more than 55 hours a week had poorer mental skills than their 40-hour-work-week counterparts.
Brain imaging specialist Dr. Daniel Amen reminds us to think of the brain as a computer that needs to hibernate, shut down and re-boot on a regular basis to prevent brain fatigue. Quoting the conclusions of a different study—this one tracking 7000 workers over more than a decade—Dr. Amen says that working 11 hours a day or more not only increases your risk of heart attack by 67 percent, it also increases your chances of developing dementia later in life.
While researchers aren’t sure exactly why people who work longer hours have weaker mental skills and are at greater risk of dementia, they say factors may include getting less sleep, experiencing more stress, and/or embracing a less healthy lifestyle. In one study, employees who worked longer hours also reported sleeping less, having more symptoms of depression, and using more alcohol than people who worked a normal 40 hour week.
“This study should give pause for thought to workaholics,” reflected Harriet Millward of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust. “We already know that dementia risk can be reduced by maintaining a balanced diet, regular social interactions and exercising both our bodies and minds. Perhaps work-life balance should be accounted for, too.”
May 11
In a recent study, people who learned to juggle grew bigger brains.
And if you think we’re clowning around, we’re not.
German researchers took 24 non-jugglers and divided them into two groups. One group was asked to do nothing; the other group was asked to practice juggling for three months. The researchers took brain scans of both groups before and after the three month experiment. What they discovered was that the dozen people who had learned how to juggle had grown more brain!
The extra brain cells were in the areas of the brain responsible for visual processing and motor skills (which makes sense when you think about the hand-eye coordination necessary for juggling).
The researchers were scanning for brain volume, rather than brain activity. As a result, while they can see that the new jugglers grew more brain cells, they don’t know the purpose of the increase. At least not yet. They’re still looking into the neural connections and brain activity related to those new cells.
The other interesting development was that, when the new jugglers stopped practicing for three months, the bigger parts of their brains decreased in size. In other words, when it comes to your brain, you snooze, you lose. To get the most out of your brain, you gotta keep using it.
So the next time you go to the circus and see a clown wearing a big hat, you’ll know why. With a bigger brain, he probably needs the extra space.
And you thought patting your head and rubbing your stomach was hard!
If you REALLY want to test your powers of concentration and memory, you should try reciting the names of all 44 American presidents while executing a complicated cup-stacking pattern while surrounded by a distracting chorus of stomping, clapping classmates.
Now do it in 17 seconds.
A nationwide video contest launched by LearningRx inspired a slew of impressive videos of kids reciting the names of all 44 presidents while hitting baseballs, doing gymnastics, and ignoring obnoxious distractions.
The winner of the contest was eleven-year-old Travis Coron of Succasunna, NJ, who scored the grand prize of an iPad in this year’s national President’s Day contest with a 31-second clip that demonstrates amazing concentration, memory and multitasking skills. The 6th grader, who attended the LearningRx Brain Training Center in Chester, New Jersey, quickly recited all 44 U.S. presidents while performing a complicated cup-stacking pattern and blocking out major distractions. (Click here to see Travis in action!)
The contest encouraged kids across the country to create videos that showed their improved memory and attention skills after participating in LearningRx brain training.
Memorizing the presidents is one of the first things students master, says LearningRx Vice President of Research and Development Tanya Mitchell. According to Mitchell, the training exercise strengthens long-term memory, attention and other cognitive skills, and also gives a big boost of self-confidence.
“It’s just one of the ways our brain training helps build smarter, faster and more efficient brains,” she explains, adding that “The video is great. It definitely leaves people saying, ‘How did he do that?’”
To see more LearningRx contest entries, click here.
Feb 1
President’s Day holds special meaning for us at LearningRx – not because it means a great mattress sale or getting President’s Day off. It’s because for our students and graduates, it’s the perfect opportunity to share some of the better brain power that comes from LearningRx brain training.
Memorizing all the U.S. presidents in order is one of the first things our students master at LearningRx. Then we train them to be able to recite the presidents quickly, and backwards, while blocking out distractions, and while doing other mental and physical tasks at the same time. It’s pretty impressive. So we wanted to share it.
In preparation for this coming President’s Day on February 21, we created a President’s Day video contest. We asked our LearningRx graduates and students to create a video that shows them reciting the presidents in a way that also demonstrates their newly strengthened ability to block out distractions, stay on task, and perform another challenge (or two).
The results are amazing! The videos show kids reciting the presidents while swimming and dancing and practicing baton and ballet and gymnastics, and hitting baseballs flying at them (and not missing a single ball!) After watching many great performances, the winner of the LearningRx President’s Day Video Contest is now official: 11-year-old Travis Coron who trained at LearningRx Chester in New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »
Jan 26
Whatever you believe about social equality, it cannot be denied that education is a major factor.
A recent report from The Economist shows the effect education has on life. Better brains get better jobs. A better job means more money. More money means the ability to send your children to a better school, and the cycle continues.
Even among people who appear to “beat” the odds—folks who rise from humble beginnings to the highest eschalon of society—brain power is often a factor. As The Economist points out, “People from humble origins sometimes rise to the top. Barack Obama was raised by a single mother. Lloyd Blankfein, the boss of Goldman Sachs, is the son of a clerk. What such people usually have in common is uncommon intelligence.”
Is an expensive education the only way to get a better brain? Or are there alternatives?
The vision of Dr. Ken Gibson, founder of LearningRx, is to make cognitive training available to everyone. The one-on-one training offered by 70 LearningRx brain training centers across the country not only strengthens cognitive skills such as attention, focus and mental processing, it also increases intelligence. In fact, students who receive LearningRx brain training increase their IQ by an average of 15-20 points. In an effort to help as many people as possible experience the benefits of a better brain, LearningRx is pursuing a partnership with the National Science Foundation and Virginia State University to study innovative approaches to improve the academic performance of minority students at selected inner-city schools. In an address to our congress (read it here) the Principal Investigator for the case, Dr. Oliver Hill, says this:
We have been using the procedures developed by an educational firm called LearningRx, which runs cognitive learning centers around the country. The data collected in these centers over the last few years Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 23
Good concentration and focus are prescriptions for a successful life. They are also the result of active and successful attention skills. Strong, efficient attention skills enable us to concentrate intently on a problem or task while sorting out unimportant information and ignoring distractions. In an article by author Sam Horn, he suggests a helpful acronym for FOCUS that offers 5 tips to better attending. You can read Sam’s article here. The summary of the acronym is…
F = the “five more” rule
When you feel the distractions building and attention waning, make the determination to do just 5 more “reps”. Finish five more math problems, reading five more pages of a book, work just 5 more minutes before you quit. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 18
Improve Logic and Reasoning
Everybody knows somebody who always says “I’m a logical person” or “I think rationally.” And many times we assume that being a logical thinker is just a personality trait – but the truth is, logical thinking can be trained and improved. Years ago, logic was taught in elementary school classrooms – logic, like math, follows a system of rules and laws that can be taught and applied theoretically and philosophically. But don’t be fooled: there’s a big difference between learning how logic works and having the ability to think logically. Read the rest of this entry »
