Running

This is a partial repost from a year and a half ago. There will be an update at the end.

If you notice, taking care of your heart and physical health is obviously one of the most important factors in keeping your brain healthy. Nutrition and exercise reduce your risk of cardiovascular problems and mental problems. Trying things that are new and challenging, especially facing the unexpected (traveling, socializing), should be encouraged at all stages of life. I was disappointed that biking and swimming aren't more helpful since I enjoy those. I will continue to play instruments and encourage my kids to do so.

It's better to wear out your body and mind than to rust.
Running will get you results in half the time of walking.
To add 3 years to your life run 100 min/week or walk 200 min/week.
Running is the best exercise for neurological health.
The computer offers hypernormal stimuli.
Fitness increases neurons and connectivity in the brain.
Exercise is as good as Zoloft to treat depression.
Exercise is the equivalent of a little Prozac and a little Adderall.
Running increases your endocannabinoids. (like marijuana)
A PE teacher gave grades based on how long students' heart rates were in the target zone and there was an 83% drop in disciplan referrals.
Teachers should offer a time in instead of a time out (run, bike, etc) in order to turn the brain back on.
Improving cardio fitness improves IQ.
Strength training improves physical health, but not mental.

 I should note here that I hate running, so hearing that was the best thing I could do for myself mentally was a major disappointment. However, it was also the push I needed. As I write this I'm in week 4 of a couch to 5k program. By the time this is published I hope to have completed it. I still hate running, but after seeing the evidence, I feel the need to run.

Update: A year and a half after I started running, I have finally started to enjoy it. Yes, I hated it for that long and continued because of the cognitive research. I'm that much of a nerd. I completed my first half marathon last April. I've completed a few since then. I set a goal to run 500 miles this year. I did it. Tomorrow is the first of two days proving I am crazy. Tomorrow I will run a 5k followed by a half marathon (yes, in the same day). Thursday I will run another 5k followed by a half marathon. It's called a Double Double. My goal is to still be standing at the end. So, if you have a good thought feel free to share it on here or on the facebook page because I will need all the encouragement I can get.

Other research notes

I learned a lot at the conference that I want to share, but wouldn't make a good post on it's own. So here's some random notes from various sessions.

• A child's attachment at 18 months is a better predictor of college graduation than I.Q.
• The job of retail/marketing is to make you unhappy with what you already have.
• In order to survive the young of our species need defenses against social manipulation - the earlier the better. 
• No accurate assessment for executive function, however Kindergarten teachers can accurately judge.
• The first two months of life and adolescence are the two biggest periods of brain growth. They are both noted by lack of sleep, moodiness, overwhelming emotions. Nutrition during these times is crucial.
• Some brain training works and some doesn't.
• C8 program for kids and Lumosity for adults are currently the best two on market.
• Use fMRI to confirm training with far transfer and durability for 1 year.

Your Brain as a House

I've previously shared a few different Theories of Mind. (It's a really good post, you should go read it.) Now I'm going to present a slightly different look at the way the brain works.

Everyone has seen the maps of the brain that show which part of the brain does what. However, that's an extreme oversimplification. If you are born blind, the part of the brain that would typically be used for sight is taken over by other functions - typically hearing and memory. Every part of the brain can do multiple functions depending on how it is trained/used.

Think of your brain like a house. You can completely remodel it with only a few limitations. The basic structure can't be easily changed, but you can always rearrange furniture. Turn a bedroom into an office, upgrade the bathroom, etc. Moving the entire kitchen into the half bath isn't feasible though. The brain works essentially the same way. You can upgrade and do some basic remodeling, but you can't completely shift functions too far away from where they should be located. Your brain can always be improved (as can your IQ).

One of the ways researchers study the functions of the brain is by looking at the effects of lesions. If you look at 100 people who all have just one brain lesion in the exact same place, you would expect them to all have the same symptom or behavioral abnormality. However that isn't the case. The reverse would be looking at 100 people who all have the same symptom or behavioral abnormality. You would expect to find they all have the same lesion. Once again this isn't true. One brain lesion can affect many behaviors and the same behavioral abnormality can be caused by damage in multiple places.

There is so much more we still need to learn about the brain. 

The importance of working memory

As I mentioned in the executive function post, working memory is extremely important. Working memory is the best predictor of school success. It is both academic and social. So, what else do we know about working memory?

High IQ does not equal high working memory. The opposite is also true, high working memory doesn't equal high IQ. While most IQ tests are sensitive to socioeconomic status (SES), working memory is not. For example, one section of most IQ tests for children is on general knowledge. If you ask a child "What is a police officer?" the correct answer would be something along the lines of "someone who helps people." An incorrect answer would be "someone who takes my Daddy away." Clearly this is measuring experience, not intelligence.


There are ways to improve working memory. It all starts with diet and exercise. I've address the importance of exercise on the brain already. So which foods are best to include in your diet? Dairy, berries, herbs, and foods with omega3 and dha have all been proven beneficial specifically for working memory. Foods that will have a negative impact are processed and contain high amounts of sugar, fat, and chemicals. One Organic Mama was kind enough to write a guest post for me on healthy living.

Once you have addressed the diet and exercise components, the other way to improve working memory is through proprioception training. In fact, proprioception training for just one day shows and increase in working memory by 50% and it lasts many months. As with anything, the more you do it the better the results. Proprioception is the ability to sense the position, location, orientation, and movement of the body and its parts. Proprioception training is all about balance and body awareness. It includes things like walking on a balance beam with your eyes closed, jumping to a target with your eyes closed, crawling on a balance beam, and running.

Research on Self-Esteem

If you are reading this blog, I'm sure you already know that telling kids they are smart does more harm than good. So, what else does the research say about self-esteem?

First you should realize that most of us have the wrong definition of self-esteem. Self-esteem is not about feeling good. Self-esteem is simply a set of opinions about yourself. Self-esteem is built though competence and new achievements. There is a balance of the two. Trying a new experience you can't possibly succeed at will not build self-esteem any more than a high level of competence at something you have been doing for years.

Our society need to shift from our current view of children as helpless and needing to be protected. We need to support them through the difficult times, not rescue them. One of my personal pet peeves is hearing parents talk about how they don't want their child to be behind or have to try "too hard" at something. No one is the best in everything and the earlier you learn that the better off you will be. You should not try to get rid of the bumps in the road for your child. Instead, teach them how to handle the bumps. We should not teach our children to give up when it's difficult or they aren't the best. Imagine what that society will look like when they are adults. The goal here is to raise children to be independent, successful adults. You can't always protect them, so learning to deal with the bumps when they are small is crucial.

"Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do." Piaget

Exercise and the Brain

I wrote about this topic more than a year ago, but I wanted to post again with the additional research.

The importance of physical exercise on your neurological health is fascinating to me, so when I'm attending a conference I tend to chose sessions that include this topic when possible. One of my favorite speakers is Dr. Kenneth Kosik. (You may notice I referred to his research in the post linked above also.) He does a lot of research on Alzheimer's and brain health. Here are some of the notes I wrote down from his session.

If you have more education and a more demanding job, it protects you against Alzheimer's.
Alzheimer's, heart attack, and stroke have many of the same risk factors.
Vascular blood vessels in the brain would be 500 miles long if stretched out.
Childhood cardiovascular health impacts the blood vessels in the brain.
70% of 40 year olds have affected blood vessels in the USA.
Children should not ever have more than 50g/day of sugar. (A juice box is 25g.)
Travel reduces risk of dementia, as does socializing, knitting, and gardening.
Biking, swimming, and golf don't reduce risk of dementia.
Dancing and playing instruments lowers dementia risk.
Cognitively, it's better to follow than to lead when dancing.

If you notice, taking care of your heart and physical health is obviously one of the most important factors in keeping your brain healthy. Nutrition and exercise reduce your risk of cardiovascular problems and mental problems. Trying things that are new and challenging, especially facing the unexpected (traveling, socializing), should be encouraged at all stages of life. I was disappointed that biking and swimming aren't more helpful since I enjoy those. I will continue to play instruments and encourage my kids to do so. I dance like a white girl with two left feet, so I will avoid that one for now. haha

I also attended a lecture by Dr. John Ratey (Harvard Medical School). He shared how humans are de-evolving. We sit in front of screens hunched over and it's making us much worse off. He is a big proponent of the FitDesk if you have to do computer work. Here are some of my notes from his speech.

It's better to wear out your body and mind than to rust.
Running will get you results in half the time of walking.
To add 3 years to your life run 100 min/week or walk 200 min/week.
Running is the best exercise for neurological health.
The computer offers hypernormal stimuli.
Fitness increases neurons and connectivity in the brain.
Exercise is as good as Zoloft to treat depression.
Exercise is the equivalent of a little Prozac and a little Adderall.
Running increases your endocannabinoids. (like marijuana)
A PE teacher gave grades based on how long students' heart rates were in the target zone and there was an 83% drop in disciplan referrals.
Teachers should offer a time in instead of a time out (run, bike, etc) in order to turn the brain back on.
Improving cardio fitness improves IQ.
Strength training improves physical health, but not mental.

I should note here that I hate running, so hearing that was the best thing I could do for myself mentally was a major disappointment. However, it was also the push I needed. As I write this I'm in week 4 of a couch to 5k program. By the time this is published I hope to have completed it. I still hate running, but after seeing the evidence, I feel the need to run. I would love a FitDesk , but don't have the money or a place to put it. I like the idea of PE grades being based on something that everyone can achieve with effort.

So, has any of this information made you want to start exercising?

Motivating Children and Students

There are some things children are motivated about on their own and some things we need to help them find motivation for. So, what are the best ways to motivate using brain research?

First you need to know about the nucleus accumbens. For those that want this simplified, it's known as the reward center of the brain. It's a limbic structure that sends dopamine throughout the brain. This is the specific part of the anatomy that generates and sustains motivation. When you think dopamine you probably think Ritalin and ADHD, so let's start our discussion there.

Volkow (2009) found a disruption in two dopamine reward/motivation pathways among adults with ADHD. The severity of this disruption was related to the severity of inattention. Another study done in Barcelona, found that children with ADHD have a smaller ventral striatum (including the nucleus acumbens), especially on the right side. The volume was correlated with hyperactivity. We know that Ritalin produces significant levels of dopamine in the brain. This increases motivation and makes tasks seem more interesting. When you look at brain wave activity in typical kids versus ADHD kids there is a huge difference. The theta/beta ratio for typical kids is 4:1, while the ratio for ADHD kids is 9:1. For some kids necessary tasks require a Herculean effort.

Typically, our society adds pressure and stress when people are not completing required tasks. It has been proven that when under stress, students work harder, but produce poorer quality work. The more stress you apply, the worse the results. While students are trying and giving it their all, they accomplish less. This also decreases motivation and makes students want to avoid challenges. This becomes even more harmful in the long run.

Sleep also plays a huge part on working memory, attention, and reaction time. Forth and sixth graders were paid to sleep one hour more or less for three consecutive nights. After a loss of 35 minutes each night for 3 nights (most couldn't make it an entire hour less) they lost two years of efficiency in these three areas. We are just starting to understand the impact of sleep and how many areas it impacts. I suspect this area of research to have a huge boom in the near future (3-5 years).

So, how do we motivate our children and students? Students need optimal challenges, feedback from the task (rather than from the teacher), freedom from demeaning evaluations, a sense of autonomy, choices, and self-direction. In other words, they need more meaningful projects and less testing. Good luck getting this in traditional schools. There are certainly teachers out there who are doing exactly this for each of their students, but they are becoming more and more rare.

There is one other thing I feel I should mention here. The brain interprets rewards and punishments as a loss of control, which is demonstrated by the stress hormones being released in the brain. The brain is wired to try to find ways of getting the reward without doing the job/assignment. We should stop fighting this and change the way we are teaching. 80% of education in public schools is competitive. While this is motivating for the top few kids, it's extremely demotivating for the other 95% of students. Why try if you aren't going to win? Stop and think about this - 95% of students are being discouraged 80% of the time in school. In order to address this, our society keeps adding more tests and rankings. We are just making it worse rather than embracing the research and trying to help the students.

What is Executive Function?

I attended a multi-day conference on executive function and how it relates to school success. Of course the first place to start should be to define executive function. Here's the problem, no one agrees. There are more than 30 credible definitions and 100s of less than credible definitions. So, here are the most common items included by various definitions:

Inhibition (self-control)
Working Memory (spatial and verbal)
Cognitive Flexibility

If you ask any teacher, these are the types of skills that are the most important in the classroom. It's much easier to teach a child to read than to teach a child self-control. Every Kindergarten teacher would rather have a class full of kids who have self-control, a good working memory, and cognitive flexibility than having a classroom full of kids who can read and do math above grade level. When you are pushing your child to be more academic stop and think about the things that are more important.

Let's look at each of these one at a time. Inhibition is more than just not hitting the jerk next to you (though that is certainly part of it). It's also controlling when you talk and what you say (I'm still working on that one). You also need to be able to inhibit the tendency to be distracted, to quit if bored or offered temptation, etc. I remember a band director once telling us the most difficult parts of any piece of music are the rests. That's the inhibition part of executive function.

Working memory is actually one of the best predictors of academic success. How much you can hold in your working memory and how you are able to manipulate it is pretty much how we define school success. This relates to reading graphs, reading books, following directions, having a discussion, and being able to consider things from multiple perspectives. Without working memory you can't make connections to other things, which is how we build neural connections in the brain. This is how we build all knowledge.

Cognitive flexibility is the most difficult part of executive function. This is being able to make mental, physical, and behavioral transitions. This is knowing the rules are different at school than at home. Pretty much every place we go, the rules are at least slightly different. Even within one place the rules can be different - at home with a babysitter versus a parent - at school in music class versus on the playground. We all know kids, and some adults, who struggle with these types of transitions. Cognitive flexibility also helps with being able to understand multiple perspectives. This is what allows us to have "outside the box" thinking and is crucial for problem solving.

Think of executive function as the director of an orchestra. Your brain does many different things, but the executive function tells it what to do and when. Many disorders start with executive dysfunction - ADHD, Tourett's Syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Depression, Autism, Learning Disabilities, Anxiety, etc. Ideally, we would test for executive function so we could help improve in all of these areas. Only, how do you test for something you can't define? This is the problem we are currently trying to address. There are some executive function evaluations on the market, however they don't cover most of what we actually want to know. I heard one analogy that it would be like giving an eye test and a coordination test and using that to determine who can drive. Those things are both needed, but there is so much more to driving, just as there is much more to executive function than the current tests evaluate.Follow my blog with Bloglovin

A Book Review

I just finished reading The Missing Alphabet: A Parents' Guide to Developing Creative Thinking in Kids. In our current educational system, creativity is typically confined to the arts. This book makes a very good argument for increasing education in creative areas to help our children succeed in the future. While reading, writing, and math are a great foundation, today's kids are surrounded by many different sense. Videos, music, and computer applications surround our kids and we need to help them understand the importance of the different areas in the sensory alphabet.

This book breaks down each of the elements and tells parents how to identify them, encourage them, and develop them. It even offers suggestions for possible career choices based on a child's sensory interests. I know I see different preferences in each of my kids and the suggestions of how to help develop these are wonderful. I also love that it's very low tech yet completely and directly translates to digital media.

The book is great at explaining how parents can incorporate each of these things at home outside of school hours. This is one of those books I'm going to save and read again when my kids are elementary age. I feel I am addressing each of these elements right now, but can see how I will need to make sure that continues as my kids get older. This book would be great for homeschoolers, but I do wish it did more to address how to do this in groups (traditional school, co-ops, camps). 

I was provided a copy of this book for free, but all opinions are my own.

Memories

I recently got into a discussion about childhood memories with a friend. I thought I would share on here some of my research. While some people have many vivid childhood memories, some have none, and others will have just one or two by the time they are adults. Obviously this has many variables and no one knows the exact reason, but there are theories.

Previously, I have discussed the roads theory of learning, and much of that theory also applies to memory. It's much more difficult to forget a highway than a country road, though any road that gets ignored will fall into disrepair.

There are many things we know that will decrease the chances of you remembering events from childhood. Second hand smoke (and first hand smoke), drugs, being in an adult centered environment, etc. all hurt your long term memories. Memories that do survive are likely to have a strong emotional connection. This could be a dream vacation, having a tornado rip apart your community, or anything that stimulates your amygdala. Your amygdala and hippocampus are the two parts of the brain most closely associated with memory.

So what can you do to help your child have strong positive memories from childhood? Love them, spend time with them, create moments with a great deal of emotion, and document it with photos, baby books, or a blog. The documentation really only provides a second hand memory and it can be controlled by others, so be careful not to edit too much. You don't want your child to grow up feeling that your photos are faked or leave out the most important parts of their story. Remember, you are a part of their memories - memories centered around them, not around you.

Learning

While most learning happens before the age of 3, your myelin grows throughout life and your brain actually peaks around age 50. As I posted before, this is related to the amount of healthy foods you eat, exercise for your body and mind, as well as education.

There are a few things you can do to help this process along. First, parents and teachers should eliminate passive learning. Listening to a lecture or sitting and watching a video or demonstration are some of the worst ways to encourage learning. If a topic requires passive learning, teachers/parents should do cold calls on students to check for understanding. Waiting for children to raise their hands and volunteer allows most students to be less active with their thoughts and analysis.

Another important technique is to celebrate struggle and repetition. For anyone familiar with the Montessori method or the Suzuki method, this is apparent. Don't celebrate correct answers, but encourage the struggle. Compliment the continued effort, the focus, and when they finally achieve success point out how proud they must feel about themselves. If you only mention success and focus a big celebration, they will learn to value that more than the struggle. Once they get it right, don't just move on. Let them repeat the entire process again and again. They will get faster and more confident. They might even find different ways to solve the same problem. These are keys to learning.

Also help your child focus on what their future self will be doing. Do not tell your child what they will do, if they say they are going to grow up to be a lemon, just go with it. Talk about what they might do or what they want to learn before they get there. Keep a goal in front of their eyes in the form of a person. This could be an imaginary person (the first toddler to land on Pluto) or a real person (the President). This will often cause more of a drive than just telling your child they will go to college and get a job.

When looking at preschool programs, I of course did research on what the neuro-scientists have found. They have compared many different types of programs. Multiple studies have found two different answers. Montessori and Tools of Mind are the repeated "winners" of these studies. These are vastly different programs so it's important to think what would be best for your child.

Tools of Mind is based on deliberate play. Students will write (or draw) their plan for play and are expected to stick with it for a long period of time. They learn focus and self control above all else and the academics just seem to fall into place. This is an impressive program, but depending on the area you live in, may be difficult to find. Where I live there aren't any close to us.

Montessori is also an excellent method, but you need to research carefully. The term Montessori can be used by anyone and many schools call themselves Montessori even if they don't follow any of the method. There are tons of "Montessori" schools around where we live, but less than 10% actually follow the method. I suggest reading Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius before you look at schools so you will know what to look for in each classroom. Many of the false Montessori schools around here were easy to identify by the existence of a transition class, dividing classes by age (all 4 year olds together), or the lack of Montessori materials.

As of last Summer (the last time I read the research on this topic), I have not seen a single controlled study comparing Tools of Mind to Montessori. If anyone knows of one (published in a peer reviewed journal) I would love to see it.

Theories of Mind

There are many different theories of the mind and how it works. While many people know the nature v. nurture debate, that is the old tip of the iceberg. Here are just a few that I have been learning about and debating for awhile now. These photos have nothing to do with the post. I just know I would get complaints if I didn't include some photos.

Exploring different colors, textures, and patterns

Empty Vessel - A child is an empty vessel that brings nothing to a new experience. When you tell them or show them something new it will start to fill the vessel and they have "learned" it. A child can only learn so much before their vessel is full and things either don't go in or other things fall out. This is the most extreme of the nurture arguments. There is no Science to back this up and anyone who has spent any amount of time with a child laughs at the thought that a child brings nothing to a new experience or that they completely learn something after seeing it only once. I should note that this is the basic theory that the current US educational system is based on - this combined with the factory model, to be more accurate.

Yummy toys

IQ - The debate here is if IQ is something you are born with or if it can change with experiences. Can you learn to increase your IQ? The simple answer is yes. IQ changes throughout life (more than could just be accounted for by testing errors) and you can learn techniques to improve your IQ. Once you know that you can improve your mental capabilities there is an automatic measurable cognitive improvement over people who think it is set - before you even do anything else. The number one thing you can do to increase cognitive processing (as judged by fMRI) is aerobic exercise. Number two is nutrition and third is education. Education in this case needs to be something new, interesting, and challenging. Doing soduko puzzles is great, but will only help for about a year, after that you need to find something else. Learning to dance, rebuild an engine, or learning a new language will all benefit you if they are new, interesting and challenging. Children are much better at this than adults, as most adults tend to stick with the same hobbies/job for years on end.

Playing with buttons and our sweet little dog

Ladder theory - Your mind is like a ladder. You must learn everything for the first rung before climbing onto the second. You must learn how to stand before you learn how to walk. You will learn to walk before learning to run. This theory is how most people think we learn. Each subject is a different ladder and you climb up even, steady steps to work your way to the top. If you manage to only weakly develop a step or try stepping over, it will catch up to you and you will fall until you learn the material. Most people, when pressed, can come up with an example in their life of how this doesn't hold true. The musician who can perform a concerto, but doesn't know all of their scales would just be one example. This is a good basic theory, but it just doesn't hold true.

Playing with the doll house

Spider web theory - Each item you learn is a point on a spider web. The more connections that item has to other things you know the stronger the web. Things learned with no context or connections will quickly fall off and be forgotten. For example, a child learning about the fraction 1/4 could connect that to a quarter note in music, a quarter of a dollar, a quarter of a football game, 25%, .25, quarter of an hour, quarter pound burger, etc. You can see how this would make it a much stronger connection. There has also been research done showing that if you change the way and location of teaching an item the more likely it is to be remembered. For example, students taught the same math problems in class were divided into two groups for homework. One group did nothing out of the ordinary. The other group was told to do all of their math homework while sitting in the empty bathtub. The bathtub group did remarkably better. So if you are trying to teach a child something that doesn't have a lot of other connections, change up the where and how you are trying to teach it.

Playing in the doll house

Roads theory - You find yourself in the middle of the country - no roads or development of any type to be seen. First, you must find water. After walking awhile you find a stream of fresh water and you notice your foot prints on the path that took you there. Next you look for shelter and a little way off you discover a tree that offers shade and some fruit to eat. Over the next few days you keep exploring and you notice the path between the stream and the tree no longer has anything growing on it. It's a simple dirt path, while other paths are still foot prints. As you continue to explore and discover some paths fade away because you stop walking on them, while other paths grow and become more defined. Skip forward in the story - You now have dirt paths, country roads, streets, and even a few highways. The highways allow you to go faster, but sometimes the exits are just close to where you are headed rather than taking you right there. They do allow you to go over some streets without even acknowledging them.
Apply this theory to your mind. Those paths that you develop start to work faster. When you first learn to walk you have to think about being balanced, picking up one leg, moving it forward, setting it down, still staying balanced and doing it all over with the other leg. After spending a lot of time practicing this skill you can walk without any thought at all. When you were in first grade you knew all of your classmates names, yet 20 years later you likely don't remember very many. A road not traveled, grows over and is forgotten. If someone asks you what the Pythagorean theorem is, you are likely taken back to when/where you learned it. You quickly (highway) got there and know when/where you learned it or last used it (exit), but it probably takes a few minutes or longer to remember specifically what it is (lesser used roads). If you use this theorem daily, choose another example.

Playing with trucks

Each of these theories tells us something about our minds. The last two are the ones most supported by current Science. As you are teaching your kids, think about the differences in the theories and how you can apply them to your time. The more important something is the more times you want them to walk that path and the more connections to other things you want to make. When all else fails, sit in an empty bathtub!

 Happy with wet curly hair