Brain Training
May 27, 2011 Hitting the books, or perhaps the iPad, Nook or Kindle, is one sure way of learning. An interesting summary of memory training techniques can be found in the April 7, 2011, issue of Nature.[1] One theory of a classical education is that any sort of learning experience makes other learning easier. Study your Latin, so you'll get math skills! There's actually some science behind this folk wisdom. Long-term memory is associated with the synthesis of new proteins that are needed to convert short-term memories into long-term memories. Eric Kandel and colleagues found that the cAMP response element binding protein (CREB), a protein involved in long-term memory storage, increases the number of synaptic connections in the brain. Learning makes your brain bigger; or, at least, better. Kandel shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for such work. Physical training often involves exercise under constraint, such as running with weights, or training at high altitudes. The reasoning behind this is that actual competition seems easier when these constraints are removed. A classical example of this that doesn't involve sports is the Greek orator, Demosthenes (Δημοσθενης). Plutarch wrote that Demosthenes wasn't a born orator. He had to train for it.[2]"He had also, as it would appear, a certain weakness of voice and indistinctness of speech and shortness of breath which disturbed the sense of what he said by disjoining his sentences."It's written that Demosthenes would train by talking with pebbles in his mouth. To improve his breathing, he recited verses while running, and he spoke on the seashore over the roar of the waves to strengthen his voice.
 | Demosthenes Practicing Oratory (Démosthène s'exerçant à la parole) Oil painting by Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ (1842-1923) Via Wikimedia Commons |
References:
- Larry R. Squire, "Psychology: The art of remembering," Nature, vol. 472, no. 7341 (April 7, 2011), pp. 33-34.
- Plutarch, "Plutarch's Lives, with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin," (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1919), chap. 6, sec. 3. Online text available from The Perseus Project.
- Karl Leif Bates, "Strobe eyewear training may improve visual abilities," Duke University Press Release, May 19, 2011.
- Video: Duke researchers test strobe glasses, YouTube, May 19, 2011.
- Plutarch, "Plutarch's Lives, with an English Translation by Bernadotte Perrin," (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1919), chap. 6, sec. 3. Online text available from The Perseus Project.