We left off with Part 1 on the importance of building your neural network – in effect, challenging yourself with stimulating habits and practices that lead to the development of new neurons and connections. We also saw how certain key brain regions can be the major players in developing intelligence, “g”. Now that we’re challenging ourselves to perform mentally and building these new neurons, it’s time to tackle step 2: enhancing the speed and ease of neural communication.

Neural communication is the same thing as neural transmission; it refers to our ability to allow interaction between neurons to take place, and reap the benefits of this neural communication in mental performance, clarity of mind, problem solving skills, new ideas, etc.

The best way to get the big picture here is to imagine a groggy college student rolling out of bed at 2 pm during frat rushing season. Ask them any question that day, and you’ll probably find that it’s hard for them to find the right answer quickly – or even at all. Why is that?

They might know many of the same things as their favorite classmate, but that other classmate may be able to answer questions several times faster and with much more clarity because they stayed in and took it easy the night before. With this example, it becomes amazingly clear: you can be learning new information and building new neural connections, but still have all kinds of trouble with mental performance due to the ease and speed of transmission.

It should be refreshing to hear that the age-old, tried-and-true methods of living a healthy lifestyle are also the habits that lead to increased neural communication. Sleep is without a doubt one of the most important, with nearly every study ever done on the subject showing increased mental performance, problem solving abilities, creativity and more. You need those 8 hours of sleep for rest and recovery – of body and mind. Keep in mind that some of the most critical sleep cycles happen between the 6-8 hour mark, and the more you take advantage of these cycles as a regular habit, the better your mental performance will be.

Being active is also essential – but this doesn’t mean just working out. It means living a healthy, active lifestyle. Keeping the blood flowing with regular movement and workouts does all kinds of things to enhance your brain’s performance. Getting active and working up a sweat is the #1 way to clear out the “haze” of mental fog and find mental clarity…in minutes. Being active throughout the day will help you to maintain that crystal clarity and speed of transmission you’re looking for.

Of course, we also know that our diet affects our mental clarity in spades. Try eating a 4-course turkey dinner and then sitting down to learn something new…it’s not going to happen! Each and every meal is an opportunity to fuel ourselves with the highest quality nutrition available, and the best recipes for peak performance. Find the meals that actually deliver the results you’re looking for, and you’ll start seeing that what and how you eat dramatically affects your productivity and mental clarity.

The 3 powerhouses of restful sleep, living an active lifestyle, and eating a healthy diet that provides the personal energy you’re looking for all work synergistically to enhance the speed and ease of neural communication; again, this translates to a “clear head”, clarity of thinking, better creativity and problem solving skills, and a number of other benefits (not the least of which is stress reduction from being unable to find peace of mind). Start taking these habits seriously and you’ll be rewarded by serious results in your life!

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett

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Intelligence is one of those topics that almost seems too “fixed” to worry about – we instantly find ourselves labeling others as smart, dumb, intelligent, slow and all kinds of other markers that have to do with our ability to perform mentally. All of our brains work on remarkably different levels, and interpret the same information from our environment in vastly different ways. Put ten people in a room and give them a topic, and you can be sure that you’ll see all kinds of new, interesting conclusions and opinions based on their past experiences and the way their brains process the incoming information.

But here’s the kicker: you can enhance your mental performance, and increase your intelligence, in several fascinating ways. The two main strategies for improving mental performance are to build new neurons and neural connections, and to optimize the speed of transmission (neural communication).

First is the building process. In the November/December issue of Scientific American Mind, they discuss the recent studies done on a group of subjects learning to juggle. While training, the amount of gray matter (neuron bodies) in the areas of the brain related to motor skills grew dramatically. When they stopped training, however, research revealed that the additional gray matter disappeared. So the real takeaway here is that the brain is plastic; it’s always changing, and you’re the one deciding how!

You can, in effect, choose to develop whatever regions of your brain you’d like – so long as you have the right habits and practices to develop them effectively. But what areas would be worth developing the most? Surprisingly, the answer generally depends on gender differences. According to researcher and author Richard J. Haier, professor emeritus in the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, research has also revealed interesting contrasts in brain structure between genders. While male and female groups may both be scoring identically on IQ tests and other standard tests, the structural development of the brains give us some further insight.

In men, higher IQ scores went hand-in-hand with gray matter in posterior areas (integration of sensory information), as well as frontal areas. In women, higher IQ scores were much more focused on these frontal regions, especially those associated with language. What researchers are now seeing and continually testing is the fact that if you develop these specific brain regions, you can develop that general intelligence quality, “g”, to a great degree. In other words, they’ve found that you can develop intelligence by selecting and developing those key regions that correlate to higher intelligence. Just how to do that most effectively is still, of course, a great debate and hot topic for professors and researchers everywhere – but the implications are vast.

So the takeaway for Part 1 is that in order to enhance your mental performance and increase your intelligence, you can start developing the brain areas that correspond to higher intelligence. This first part is all about building the gray matter, or neurons, in your brain by challenging yourself with new, stimulating habits and practices. It could be learning to play a new instrument, reading for 60 minutes a day, crossword puzzles, card games, sudoku, or any number of other habits. Think about what new daily habit would excite you – something that you would enjoy doing that would also challenge you to develop your ability to perform mentally. Tie this into a practice that develops the specific regions of intelligence, and you’ve got a powerful developmental plan for your mind.

I’ll see you on Part 2, where we’ll discuss the second way to start increasing your intelligence – the speed and ease of neural communication.

Unleash Your Vitality,

John Brackett