Cool Brain Research - extra credit

What:
CHANGES IN GREY MATTER INDUCED BY TRAINING
Newly honed juggling skills show up as a transient feature on a brain-imaging scan.
By John Raty

The traditionally held view is that the anatomical structure of the adult human brain does not alter, except for changes in morphology caused by ageing or pathological conditions. This view is contradicted by the experiments of John Ratey.

A group of young people were given 3 months to learn a classic three-ball cascade juggling routine. This group, as well as a control group were given 3 brain scans, one before learning the routine, one when they had become skilled performers (that is, when they could sustain juggling for at least 60 seconds) and the last was carried out 3 months later. During the intervening period, none of the jugglers practiced or attempted to extend their skills— for example, by learning a four-ball or a reverse cascade. In fact, most subjects were no longer fluent in three-ball cascade juggling by the time of the third scan. Group comparison at the beginning (the baseline) showed no significant regional differences in grey matter between jugglers and non-jugglers.

‘In the longitudinal analysis, the juggler group demonstrated a significant transient bilateral expansion in grey matter in the mid-temporal area and in the left posterior intraparietal sulcus between the first and the second scans. This expansion decreased in the third scan. We found a close relationship in these regions between the transient structural grey-matter changes and the juggling performance. These findings were specific to the training stimulus, as the nonjugglers showed no change in grey matter over the same period.’

‘We [find] that these individuals show a transient and selective structural change in brain areas that are associated with the processing and storage of complex visual motion. This discovery of a stimulus-dependent alteration in the brain’s macroscopic structure contradicts the traditionally held view that cortical plasticity is associated with functional rather than anatomical changes.’ (Quotes from the article)

So What: In layman’s terms this basically means that by that you can expand the grey matter of your brain by learning new skills. As I explained to my grandson, ‘You can get smarter by doing things with your mind an dbody – playing the piano (He doesn’t like to), playing soccer and football, doing crossword puzzles and word searches, etc.’

Now what:
In the classroom students should be challenge to learn new skills and given exercises during classroom time to use fine motor skills to increase their intelligence. The reasons for these exercises should be explained to students and educators as well. It’s great to know that you can make yourself smarter!!!!