A midday nap markedly boosts the brains learning capacity

October 1, 2010

It looks as though a nap can help increase learning capacity, perhaps by clearing out a backlog of facts and making room for more. From the article:

“It’s as though the e-mail inbox in your hippocampus is full and, until you sleep and clear out those fact e-mails, you’re not going to receive any more mail. It’s just going to bounce until you sleep and move it into another folder.”

If you couple this with the boost in growth hormone that you can obtain from the same nap (a topic I want to post more on soon), it seems that it may be well worth scheduling a daily siesta.

A midday nap markedly boosts the brains learning capacity.


Butter Is Brain Food

August 17, 2010

Today’s post onĀ The Quantified Self shows a correlation (for the author) between butter (vs pork fat) intake and reduced time to perform simple mathematical calculation. He speculates that a temporary downward trend in his performance during the butter period corresponded to an unrelated decrease of omega-3 intake.


A Summary of Transcend by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

August 3, 2010

The following is a chapter-by-chapter summary of Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever, by Kurzweil and Grossman. Kurzweil believes that we are nearing an era in which medical science will advance fast enough to outpace aging and other chronic illnesses.

Read the rest of this entry »


Rote Practice Is Boring AND Less Effective

July 16, 2010

The Time article below reports a study in which it was discovered that repetitive practice of a single skill does not train that skill any better (and possibly less well in “game” situations) than a mixed-skill practice session. One of the intriguing explanations is that “Tedium is bad for the brain”, implying the importance of the mental aspect to physical training and skills.

Study: Why Athletes Should Mix Sports-Training Routines – TIME.


Study: how things you touch influence the way you think

June 25, 2010

Interesting how things may be cross-wired in our brains. I wonder if these reactions are universal, e.g. hot drinks make Americans feel “warmer” to other people but what about people in a really hot equatorial climate? Would they tend to “appreciate” cool drinks more?

There are so many applications (insidious and benign) if this can be refined a bit more…

Study: how things you touch influence the way you think – Wellness – TIME.com.


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