Think Smart: A Neuroscientist’s Prescription for Improving Your Brain’s Performance

5 Responses to “Think Smart: A Neuroscientist’s Prescription for Improving Your Brain’s Performance”

1. Karen Sharp says:

   May 15, 2010 at 2:41 pm

   I still have yet to listen to this audio book. It is not on the type of CD that you can use in the car, and that’s the only place I have time to use audio books. It may be a very excellent item, but it’s going to take me awhile to know that. If the car is where you intend to use this CD, don’t buy it.
   Rating: 2 / 5
2. M. L Lamendola says:

   May 15, 2010 at 3:40 pm

   In previous books, he talked about brain plasticity. That concept is behind much of this book. Over the past few years, I have watched the stupidity epidemic get progressively worse. Most of the ill have gotten that way through poor choices. This book presents a road to recovery for them, and a path of prevention for everyone else.

   The book has a few flaws, where Dr. Restak wanders off the reservation of his knowledge base.

   For example, he recommends drinking red wine. He gets his in rank from “studies” paid for by the wine industry. The studies cherry pick in rank. I look at the theme of alcohol this way. If you find some beneficial substance in gasoline, that doesn’t mean you should drink gasoline.

   The same is right of any beverage containing alcohol. Consumption of alcohol has net negative consequences. Any benefit derived from it can be obtained by other means, without killing brain and liver cells, without consuming empty calories, and without unleashing a storm of free radicals in your body. Yes, alcohol has all of those liabilities. And more.

   The book also has strengths where Dr. Restak discussion outside his area of expertise. For example, his discussion of corporal health is very excellent. This is my own area of expertise (I haven’t been sick since 1971 despite having an immunity deficiency, and it’s because of how I’ve implemented my health expertise).

   The book contains extensive discussion about the implications of the fact that the brain is a corporal organ of the body. You can’t have a healthy brain if you are feeding your body junk and engaging in other behavior that is leaving your body a wreck. For the typical American immersed in our people’s disease-problem culture, this book is a “must read.”

   This book is about 250 pages long, and consists of an introduction, six chapters (called “parts”), an epilogue, a bibliography, and an index.

   Chapter 1, “Learning the Brain,” brings out a summary of “what the brain is about,” from Dr. Restak’s previous books. For the first-time Restak reader, this brings you up to speed so you have a foundation for the rest of the book. If you’ve loved his work previously, this chapter is a excellent refresher.

   Chapter 2, “Care and Feeding of the Brain: The Basics,” Dr. Restak essentially provides my private diet philosophy (see http://www.supplecity.com for info). The in rank in this book needs some tweaking, but.

   *You do not “avoid” hydrogenated oils. You eliminate them. These substances are highly toxic, which is why I don’t eat restaurant bread or anything else that might control partially or fully hydrogenated oil.

   *I mentioned the alcohol thing, earlier. The human body and alcohol simply do not go together.

   *He is too benevolent toward grains. Whole grains are far better than processed ones, but overall you need to make grains a minor part of your diet.

   *Dr. Restak also errs in his discussion of fish. Incorrect conclusions from too small data.

   If you’re on the typical American diet, you can follow the advice in Chapter 2 as presented and experience seemingly miraculous improvements in how you look, feel, and perform. But you can do even better, with a few changes as noted.

   Chapter 3, “Specific Steps for Enhancing Brain Performance,” is probably not going to fascinate to many people. The reason is the same reason that achieving a high level of corporal fitness does not fascinate to most people: work. Go into any gym, and you will observe low-intensity workouts. You probably won’t come across anyone in the place doing a high-intensity exercises. This doesn’t mean people are bone idle, it means people don’t like being hard-pressed to their limits.

   When it comes to mental exercise, we’re the same way. We easily rise to the challenge when the challenge is at the 50% level. We solve problems all day long at work, though many of them never hit even the 50% level.

   When confronted with a 90 percenter, most of us will delay or engage in other forestalling behavior. Again, that doesn’t make us bone idle. It’s just a natural response.

   The reason training of any kind works is adaptation. We don’t get the adaptation response until we get a challenge that either comes very close to 100% of our capacity or exceeds it. Going into that range is uncomfortable, even awkward. We are nearly guaranteed to fail, even as with a 50% challenge we are nearly guaranteed to succeed. So, we try to avoid those high-end challenges. The consequence of that is we don’t get the adaptation and improvement.

   Still, this chapter is where you’ll find tips and techniques on doing exercises that make you smarter. If you choose that being smarter is worth the discomfort of working at it, then you can choose from a variety of ways to get the adaptation that consequences in a more powerful brain. Not sure you want to make the effort? You can scale back and do “maintenance” with the same techniques.

   Chapter 4, “Using Technology to Achieve a More Powerful Brain,” may possibly easily be misunderstood. Dr. Restak clearly warns hostile to overdoing it, so head that warning. There are benefits to video games and other technology. If used judiciously, these games can be tools to improve your reaction time, stimulate the growth of neural networks, increase your processing speed, improve your alertness, and yield other brain boosting benefits.

   Video games take the same “work” of Chapter 3 and make them fun. But just as it’s not excellent to sit nearly all day working crossword puzzles or math games, it’s also not excellent to let video games replace actual life.

   I can sum up Chapter 5, “Fashioning the Creative Brain,” by saying it’s about “reckon outside the box.” Dr. Restak provides examples and exercises to illustrate what it means to reckon in nontraditional ways. He then goes into what some of those ways are, providing fascinating examples. He concludes this chapter by providing four steps to increase your productivity.

   Chapter 6, “Impediments to Optimal Brain Function and How to Compensate for Them,” is probably the most vital chapter for the typical reader. Most of us are fine with how smart we are now. We just want to keep it that way. That’s what this chapter is about. Dr. Restak identifies behaviors and situations we can control, to minimize hurt to what we’ve got.

   But we can’t entirely preclude decline as we age. So, what to do? Dr. Restak points out that there are two types of intelligence: fluid and crystallized. The excellent news is the crystallized intelligence gets better as you get older. Like the wine you should not drink, it improves with age. There’s a reason for the adage, “With age comes wisdom.” Dr. Restak explores that reason and provides matter-of-fact advise on how to use it to your advantage.

   The epilogue is titled, “The Twenty-First Century Brain.” Perhaps this was “Epilogue” rather than “Chapter 7″ because it’s small when compared to the other chapters. It provides his recommendations. The are divided up into four areas:

   *Nutrition. This is factually flawed. The in rank on cholesterol is incorrect, and it comes from conclusions rather than the data. Also, the recommendation to “try to include walnuts and blueberries in your daily diet” comes from conclusions rather than the data. In the first case, nutritional cholesterol is not the problem; excess overall stout consumption is. In the second case, walnuts and blueberries are specific examples of a general rule; the general rule isn’t even mentioned. The caffeine recommendation concurs with the current literature on the topic.

   *Cognitive performance improvement. This is near all excellent. Again, though, he uses specific examples instead of the general rule. He gives a lengthy description of a specific exercise for dexterity, even as other exercises are equally valid. He also recommends getting a GPS, though this would not be a high priority for me personally and the technology still has kinks in it so may not reduce stress to the degree he implies. Just as he understated earlier about alcohol, he understates about television. You do not “reduce” brainwashing, you eliminate it. Informed intelligence and television and are mutually exclusive. His discussion of developing a magnificent obsession, but, makes up for any other deficiencies in this part of the book.

   *Mood improvement. This part is all excellent.

   *Start now. Dr. Restak discussion about why it’s never too late to enhance brain function, and provides in rank to prove that assertion.

   This book makes a fine addition to my growing Restak collection. Even though some of the in rank isn’t right and even though some of the recommendations need to be rewritten, the book can help nearly anyone reach a higher level of corporal and mental health. The benefits that flow from that include better relationships, better financial stability, less illness, and greater happiness. Not a terrible return on an investment of less than twenty bucks.
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. Patricia R. Andersen says:

   May 15, 2010 at 4:06 pm

   I have no thought why the description of a ghost tale in post war Britain is attached to this book, but it’s not this particular book.

   I have read a few of Dr Restak’s books and found them fascinating, if not everlastingly in line with how I understood how the body works. Nope, I’m not a doctor and I don’t even play one on tv, but I do know different areas of the brain administer audio, tactile and visual experiences. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a brain general practitioner to figure that one out.

   Plus I loved the come forth of obesity – Dr Restak’s quote is “in humans, obesity is more often associated with cognitive impairment than with age, gender, education, or IQ”. Really? So would a college educated obese person have more cognitive impairment than, say, a middle school dropout who drank red wine every day? (By the way, drinking red wine is not compulsory by Dr Restak to help improve cognitive function.) Does that even make any sense to anyone? If there’s a study to back up that small nugget, Dr Restak neglects to give the in rank on it. (Here’s my bias – I’m considered “obese”)

   Dr Restak’s guidelines to improve brain performance are basically ones you have heard of – playing games, maintenance caught up in life, problem solving. If dementia, be it vascular or Alzheimer’s, takes over the brain, all the Scrabble playing in the world is not going to help. And let’s not talk about such things as gunshot wounds or motor vehicle accidents.

   But Dr Restak is the neuroscientist and I am not. I have to admit that certain things made me reckon “what the heck?” when I was reading the book and it made it trying for me to take everything Dr Restak said at face value. Your mileage may vary, but I’d urge this book with some reservations.

   Rating: 3 / 5
4. Angela Boyter says:

   May 15, 2010 at 4:21 pm

   As someone about to qualify for Medicare, I am one of legions who are increasingly interested in staving off cognitive aging and improving my brain’s performance. I was impressed by Dr. Restak’s credentials and his long list of publications. I really sought after to like this book and find helpful advice in it. Unfortunately, the author lost his credibility with me early on, so that I do not feel that I can trust his recommendations.

   First of all, he makes statements that I know are just plain incorrect. For example, in Part Three, he says, “Thanks to neurons in the frontal cortex that are bimodal (responding to touch and sound) or trimodal (responding to touch, sound, and thought), we activate like peas in a pod brain areas whenever we use any of these three senses.” I am not a doctor, just an informed layperson, but I KNOW that we do not use like peas in a pod brain areas when we see as when we hear. I am sure Dr. Restak knows this also and must have meant something else, but if I had not known better I would come away with a very inaccurate picture of the brain’s functioning. How many other misstatements or misleading phrasings are in the book that I did not know enough to disbelieve?

   Second, he makes conclusions that do not appear to follow from the evidence that he gives. These may be valid, based on other studies, but if so, he should make that clear. This weakness was especially apparent in Part Two in the section on diet. For example, he says “measures to control obesity are worthwhile, whatever effort may be required, since, as tests of cognitive performance in humans, obesity is more often associated with cognitive impairment than with age, gender, education, or IQ. Particularly affected are the functions carried out by those all-vital frontal lobes. As mentioned earlier, these most developed brain areas are known to be associated with setting and maintenance to goals, controlling impulses, and monitoring one’s own behavior—three unique problem areas for the chronically obese.” He implies that obese people have problems with the functions carried out by the frontal lobes, but he does NOT indicate whether the obesity may be CAUSED at least in part by those poorly functioning lobes rather than the other way nearly, so we cannot say without further studies whether bringing up the rear consequence would improve the lobes’ functioning. In the same section, just before the quote above, he cites a study on mice that purportedly involves obesity, but he describes the study as comparing mice fed a normal diet with mice fed a diet high in saturated stout and empty calories. Even as it is right that empty calories and stout can lead to obesity, it is not at all clear whether it is the obesity or the poor nutrition that produced the poor performance in the mice.

   Many of the recommendations in this book are well known, and I have heard them before. On other subjects, such as the importance of sleep, I encountered new in rank, and I want to take it away as solid. Unfortunately the weaknesses I have described caused me to lose my acceptance of the author as an unquestioned authority. Perhaps in writing for a general audience Dr. Restak simply does not take care to phrase his statements as correctly as he would for his peers. If that is the case, he does both himself and his readers a disservice. There may be fantastic advice in this book, but I am not willing to take this author’s word for it.

   Rating: 3 / 5
5. W Boudville says:

   May 15, 2010 at 6:50 pm

   Restak offers encouragement to those of us wanting to reckon better. He explores several ways to do this, and the different types of cognitive ability that constitutes thought.

   As far as improving the inherent capabilities, a excellent diet and exercise are not compulsory; unconnectedly but preferably jointly. For diet, an abundance of fruits and vegetables is suggested, by the side of with fish, the latter having omega 3, which studies suggest boost brain performance. Even if omega 3 is later shown to have small effect, the nutritional recommendations are probably at most terrible benign. And possibly beneficial for overall health.

   For wine lovers, he suggests a moderate drinking of red wine. Several studies have pointed to resveratrol as the active ingredient, which might in some way slow aging. This is tentative, and the suggestion is only of a glass per day.

   The promotion of exercise comes out of recent research showing an increase in growth of capillaries in the brain, and the number of interconnections of neurons. Memory and cognition are encoded or aided by the dense web of interconnections.
   Rating: 4 / 5