...and other tips for cognitive longevity:
http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/your-brain-doesnt-have-to-decline-as-you-age
TL,DR version:
Stay mentally active
Yeah, kinda, basically.
But this site also has a TON of other tips to improve brain health, such as http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/tips-to-improve-brain-health-for-every-generation
More @ http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog#SEARCH?q=improve <-- click SEARCH; there is no bookmarkable link with query parameters
But brain health is far beyond just "use the muscle and it will stay strong", there's also stuff you can and should do to balance out the "use" aspect -- stuff that should NOT wait until you notice things going downhill (http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/if-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it)!
Including some simple things like reducing multi-tasking, and especially increasing sleep (http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/sleep-to-improve-cognitive-performance)!
A recent study I read about said that exercise is also very important (duh!) but especially so in people with ADD/ADHD.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/exercise-seems-to-be-beneficial-to-children/380844/
Now, it was done on children, but I can't imagine it's too different in adults.
(http://cdn.theatlantic.com/newsroom/img/posts/2014/09/brains3/61f0c6679.jpg)
That led to http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/research/research_topic/autism, which led to this video about what it's like for someone on the autism spectrum to try to pay attention to someone talking: http://youtu.be/3af5JJ3DRJU.
Quote from: Thorin on September 30, 2014, 12:18:59 PM
...which led to this video about what it's like for someone on the autism spectrum to try to pay attention to someone talking: http://youtu.be/3af5JJ3DRJU.
She is more than just "someone" apparently, she has done a ton of videos about living with Aspergers/ADD/anxiety etc. (https://www.youtube.com/user/WillowMarsden/videos) and also she and her fiancee started up a forum http://asperclick.com/ for sufferers. And hey Tom (and self!) one thing (obvious to some, sacrilege to others) she suggests is avoiding caffeine -- thankfully I'm cold turkey off (for good this time!) for going on 3 months now... but I remember how terribad my focus was back when "on" pop :(
http://www.willowhope.com/blogs/willowhope/8808171-caffeine-enhancing-anxiety-in-aspergers-syndrome
Yes. Caffeine is bad. very bad. It does almost all of the same things a proper ADHD med would do (aka: good stimulant) but it doesn't solve the focus problem, and can make it worse.
Sad, but I can deal with some focus loss, so long as I'm awake. heh.
I also started taking some Taurine, and it seems to help me focus. At least it cuts the edge off the frustration I feel when I can't focus so well, and sometimes get some of the ADD "Hyper Focus" back (aka: The Zone).
Quote from: Tom on September 30, 2014, 01:21:26 PM
Yes. Caffeine is bad. very bad. It does almost all of the same things a proper ADHD med would do (aka: good stimulant) but it doesn't solve the focus problem, and can make it worse.
Sad, but I can deal with some focus loss, so long as I'm awake. heh.
I also started taking some Taurine, and it seems to help me focus. At least it cuts the edge off the frustration I feel when I can't focus so well, and sometimes get some of the ADD "Hyper Focus" back (aka: The Zone).
Try Buckley's daytime cold medicine (or others with pseudo) and at least you've also got a headache treatment built in ;)
Another reminder to self: "mental" ability/energy is only ONE of 4 "layers" (http://99u.com/workbook/32307/the-4-layers-of-energy) that can enable or cripple productivity and/or quality of life -- found via https://twitter.com/DoMeetings
(and sometimes "success" of ANY kind just takes a positive emotional state i.e. CONFIDENCE (http://www.dumblittleman.com/2014/09/5-steps-sharpening-mind-success.html) to be the deal-breaker/maker aka biggest factor in any kind of "success", even the small personal stuff that ain't as visible as "work" stuff etc.)
Quote from: Darren Dirt on September 30, 2014, 01:25:16 PM
(and sometimes "success" of ANY kind just takes a positive emotional state i.e. CONFIDENCE (http://www.dumblittleman.com/2014/09/5-steps-sharpening-mind-success.html) to be the deal-breaker/maker aka biggest factor in any kind of "success", even the small personal stuff that ain't as visible as "work" stuff etc.)
Thanks to coaching courses, I learned an interesting thing about confidence and how it affects your performance.
It's not actually the confidence in your abilities that gets you to your end goal, it's the belief that even if you fail this time, your skills will improve and you will eventually make it to your end goal. When first starting something new, you won't have any confidence in your ability to do said thing (since you've never done it before), but as long as you tell yourself that you will get better every time you try, then you will keep trying and eventually get better.
As an example: babies have absolutely zero confidence in their ability to walk. However, they want to walk just like everyone else, and they refuse to give up, and almost all the time there are older humans around urging them on to keep trying, and eventually those babies become very confident in their ability to walk (and then run) everywhere.
The key here is that it's okay to fail, and it's okay to not feel confident in your abilities, as long as you get back up and try again every time you fail. This belief that you will eventually succeed.
This is a big thing, something I see a lot of people struggling with: trying stuff
People think if they can't do something perfectly the first time they shouldn't try, but the person who fails 10 times in a row has 10 times the experience, can then look back at what they've done with a critical eye and sort out areas they need to develop.
In general I've seen people that are afraid to try, or who have tried but became easily dissuaded, or continually try but don't review and develop. These concepts together help a person build experiences and learn how to master things.
Quote from: Thorin on September 30, 2014, 03:20:00 PM
Thanks to coaching courses, I learned an interesting thing about confidence and how it affects your performance.
It's not actually the confidence in your abilities that gets you to your end goal, it's the belief that even if you fail this time, your skills will improve and you will eventually make it to your end goal. When first starting something new, you won't have any confidence in your ability to do said thing (since you've never done it before), but as long as you tell yourself that you will get better every time you try, then you will keep trying and eventually get better.
As an example: babies have absolutely zero confidence in their ability to walk. However, they want to walk just like everyone else, and they refuse to give up, and almost all the time there are older humans around urging them on to keep trying, and eventually those babies become very confident in their ability to walk (and then run) everywhere.
The key here is that it's okay to fail, and it's okay to not feel confident in your abilities, as long as you get back up and try again every time you fail. This belief that you will eventually succeed.
Wow, just realized that is the kind of confidence I was actually promoting (without realizing that it's not assumed to be that) ... I often forget that "the masses" mainly think of confidence as this kind of vaccuous "The Secret" kind of driver that is really a longterm dead-end. But the "I am skilled/prepared enough to now take action, and hope the results will reflect my efforts (but if they don't, that's not just fine but in fact an opportunity to improve my skillset" type of confidence and inner voice and mindset etc, THAT is what is critical and invaluable (and hard-won from life experience, not just put into practice after reading a blog or book or watching an emotion-stirring video).
Well Darren, I was just responding to the description of confidence as it was given in the linked article. The article talked about telling yourself about all those other times you'd already succeeded, which is based on this idea that if you pump yourself up you can't fail. Which is a fallacy.
Also,
Quote from: Darren Dirt on September 30, 2014, 03:59:42 PM
"I am skilled/prepared enough to now take action, and hope the results will reflect my efforts (but if they don't, that's not just fine but in fact an opportunity to improve my skillset" type of confidence and inner voice and mindset etc, THAT is what is critical and invaluable (and hard-won from life experience, not just put into practice after reading a blog or book or watching an emotion-stirring video).
I'm actually saying that one should take action long before being skilled or prepared enough. For instance, the baby trying to walk has
no skill but tries anyway. And then
keep trying.
Quote from: Thorin on September 30, 2014, 04:19:06 PM
I'm actually saying that one should take action long before being skilled or prepared enough. For instance, the baby trying to walk has no skill but tries anyway. And then keep trying.
"Ship fast, fail fast, TRY AGAIN FAST" ;)
(which also is considered a myth by some -- https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ship+fast+fail+fast+fail+often )
Quote from: Darren Dirt on September 30, 2014, 10:42:43 AM
...and other tips for cognitive longevity:
http://www.brainhealth.utdallas.edu/blog_page/your-brain-doesnt-have-to-decline-as-you-age
on this topic...
"even the simple act of walking can lead to brain functions improving..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/11803682/Sian-Williams-how-to-rewire-your-brain-to-avoid-decline.html
^ an article from a Masters grad student in Psychology, who discussed consciousness and cognition, and STRESS etc. with a neuropsychologist and her mother. Fascinating stuff, if not immediately practical too. And it reiterates what others have said in recent years: "...the stress hormone cortisol ... [its levels] explain why it's best to turn computers off at night, too. Morning light is blue; evening light falls into the red spectrum.
Electronic devices naturally emit the blue light, giving your brain all the wrong signals and priming it to stay awake."
Quote from: Darren Dirt on August 17, 2015, 05:08:50 PM
it's best to turn computers off at night, too. Morning light is blue; evening light falls into the red spectrum. Electronic devices naturally emit the blue light, giving your brain all the wrong signals and priming it to stay awake."
I'm sure I've mentioned this in another thread, that's why at night I try to give myself at least 30 minutes of 0 screen time reading or listening to music before I hit the hey
All too often I've gone to bed and pulled out the tablet and then just ... been up for most of the night (it's amazing how many episodes of "Freeman's Mind" you can watch before the battery dies)
I've been struggling with on and off insomnia for a little while now, I think I'm finally getting out of a bad / low cycle. I have a lot more energy during the day when I sleep at night (who woulda thunk it)
Quote from: Mr. Analog on August 18, 2015, 01:02:01 PM
Quote from: Darren Dirt on August 17, 2015, 05:08:50 PM
it's best to turn computers off at night, too. Morning light is blue; evening light falls into the red spectrum. Electronic devices naturally emit the blue light, giving your brain all the wrong signals and priming it to stay awake."
I'm sure I've mentioned this in another thread, that's why at night I try to give myself at least 30 minutes of 0 screen time reading or listening to music before I hit the hey
All too often I've gone to bed and pulled out the tablet and then just ... been up for most of the night (it's amazing how many episodes of "Freeman's Mind" you can watch before the battery dies)
I've been struggling with on and off insomnia for a little while now, I think I'm finally getting out of a bad / low cycle. I have a lot more energy during the day when I sleep at night (who woulda thunk it)
I love a particular app I added to my Android, it lets you pick an exact color to "hue-ify" your display so of course I use it to add a pretty-much-opposite-of-blue color so at night I run the app and I can easily fall asleep reading stuff (instead of being over-stimulated and staying awake for hours).
Just gotta remember to launch it some nights ;D
Lately I've put my charging cord onto the other side of the room so I can't reach it from the bed, then I read one of many books I've been meaning to get through and hey guess what I also fall asleep pretty quick ;)
I've got an app called Twilight installed on my tablet and phone. It auto tints my screens gradually as it gets later. I find it does help. But its probably just a better idea NOT to use them late at night.
On the subject of sleep cuz it is SO iimportant I posted in the Insomnia thread a link to 5 simple "mini-habits". Simple stuff, but not easy to actually follow through ;)
http://forums.righteouswrath.com/index.php/topic,10795.msg86632.html#msg86632
neuroplasticity -- increase your brain power, change your life!
Quote
... a "magical" scientific discovery that shows that our brains are not hard-wired like computers, as was once thought, but like "play-doh" or a "gooey butter cake.
... Neuroplasticity can refer to structural changes, such as when neurons are created or die off or when synaptic connections are created, strengthened or pruned. It can also refer to functional reorganisations, such as those experienced by the blind patients of Paul Bach-y-Rita, whose contraptions triggered their brains to start using their visual cortices, which had previously been redundant.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/11/can-you-think-yourself-into-a-different-person/
Cool article discussing bio-feedback as well as "life hack" kind of techniques. Heavy reading in parts, but you can skim or skip those paragraphs.
In summary, my take on this is that each of us can benefit in practical ways re. quality of life if we just stay aware and occasionally remind ourselves that for the most part our brains are really just incredibly powerful "pattern-matching machines", and how we live our lives is a result of what is the "programming" inside. As Scott Adams likes to say in his excellent blog, we are "robots made of meat" -- but I declare that once we are truly self-aware of this fact, once we "get it" in a deep foundational way, that becomes LIBERATING rather than a LIMITATION.*
"Plasticity says you start off with a lot of potential but you're laying down a future that's going to become increasingly determined by what you've done before." <-- pretty much what my summary is saying :)
PS: one of the Comments mentioned a blog covering news and research etc. on this this kind of topic, really a merger of "neuroscience" with "culture" that seems pretty accessible -- http://neuroanthropology.net/about/ -- and it even has funnies (http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/07/27/fun-and-humor-category/)!
*especially, SJWs might point out, if you are an employed white male living in a western nation #checked ;)
...or, in our old age, just give up hope on every being at your prime again.
[Starcraft 2 log files analysis proves...] "After age 24, our brains on our the decline"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLlsIxOBF64
... and on the radio this week I heard that the "happiest time" is at age 23 (or 24?) ... COINCIDENCE?
(bonus: the radio also said that happiest time #2 is at age 69. Seriously, no joke.) (Happy #420 guys!)
Ugh, when i was 23 I was working at ISC / Upside, I guess I'll look forward to 69 then!
...unless you can find a "magical/mystical janitor" in a high school and pull the ol' "18 Again" switcheroo!
Hah