Cognitive Flexibility

Cognitive Flexibility is the ability to shift gears, a foundation human process that plays a role in an individual's ability to succeed. IM dramatically improves cognitive flexibility at all levels of functioning. Here are three video clips about this mental process.

A dad shares about how improved cognitive flexibility seen during IM training positively impacted his son's behavior.
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A teen in an elite private school. This video begins with some higher level IM tasks and then you'll hear the student and parent talk about the behavioral ramifications of improved cognitive flexibility.

Research is now being done on elite managers and what's happening in their brains that allows for top end cognitive flexibility that makes them the world's innovators. 

Synchronized Brain is Important

This is a collection of recent finds on the importance of synchronization with in the brain. This extremely significant mental process is where IM impacts the brain. 

Addicted to video games?

Today, Sammy (named changed) came to IM playing his hand held video game in the car on the way to IM. He did not have a very good day at IM. He could not get engaged in the IM activities. Upon leaving IM, he's focus immediately went to getting that hand held game back into his hands. Mom took it and kept it. Thank you mom.

ANTs - Automatic Negative Thoughts

Dr. Amen talks about ANTs in this video.  This is the seventh video of his speech, you need to go about 1:07 seconds into video to get to the ANTs part. Great video series! Watch it!

Selective Awareness Test

OK, since my last post was a very boring research - let's spice it up and test your selective awareness. This is fun, try it.  

My Child is constantly making noises.

Last week I saw a student who's mom reported that her son is constantly making noises.

Amazingly low IM Scores

The scores you make on IM are huge indicators of your basic mental functioning, but they fall short in telling the whole picture. Yes, if a child comes in averaging over 100 ms, I know this child is working far harder than they need to in this world. Basic timing is a huge issue. But on the other end of the spectrum, some students can have AMAZINGLY low numbers and can still be lacking in some very basic mental processes. More IM can lead to significant mental processes still coming on line. The numbers don't tell the entire picture.

ANTs - Automatic Negative Thoughts

During IM training, I use the term ANTs alot. Automatic Negative Thoughts - ANTs. I borrowed the concept from Dr. Daniel Amen's book, Making a Good Brain Great. As many as 75% of the individuals I see, both children and adults, have atleast one day of some ANTs.

Executive Functioning - the skills IM seems to impact greatly.

Here are 3 core executive functioning (EF) skills impacted by IM that Dr. Adele Diamond discusses in her presentation. 

1 Inhibitory control (self control)

2.Working Memory -(attention)

3.Cognitive Flexibility -(awareness of other perspectives, shifting gears)

Adele Diamond, from the University of British Columbia, was UC Davis MIND Institutes most recent lecturer talking about Cognitive Control in the Younger Child. If you are an educator or have preschool children at home the 6 pm lecture is a must see.

Neural Synchrony and Selective Attention

Neurons that fire in synchrony, have a greater impact on neuroplasticity (learning) than those neurons firing alone. This technical lecture about Neural Synchrony and Selective Attention tells us that by aligning the firing of neurons up in time, you get a big bang for your buck in terms of efficient processing in the brain.

Brain works best when the rhythm is right.

New Stanford University research suggests that brain cells need to follow specific rhythms for proper brain functioning.  "A unifying theme here is that of brain rhythms," said Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD,  senior author of both papers. Like the cells that keep the beat of the heart, certain brain cells oscillate and guide cells in the brain.

Working the Subconcious in IM - IM is a cerebellar exercise

What if you relied more heavily on a region of the brain responsible for conscious, effortful movement while typically developing students utilized a region of the brain important for automating motor tasks?   

A New Beginning

I was visiting with my 24-year-old son, Brad, today. We were talking about what were our greatest life joys and losses - an engaging and insightful topic. Great discussion for tonight's dinner table....

When asked about his childhood, Brad again disconnected himself from his childhood saying something like, "I don't think of my childhood as me." Plain and simple. That wasn't me. This is about the fourth time I've heard him say with very honest and true feelings that he does not feel connected with his past. Of course we went on to talk about how your past absolutely is a part of you but doesn't have to define who you are now. Given that, he sincerely does feel like he started a new life, a new beginning - 7 years ago now, with his first IM training!

Processing Speed located throughout the brain

Many individuals gain signifantly in the speed at which they complete tasks after IM training. This  study  may help explain why.

Brain Regions involved in Timing

This fMRI research paper show what parts of the brain are used in timing.

Abstract. Cognitive time management is an important aspect of human behaviour and cognition that has so far been understudied. Functional imaging studies in recent years have tried to identify the neural correlates of several timing functions, ranging from simple motor tapping to higher cognitive time estimation functions.

A 'noisy' brain linked with attention difficulties.

Dr. John Rubenstein spoke at the University of California's MIND Institute last month discussing signaling and growth patterns in the brain. He spoke of how certain disorders may have to do with excited neurons that are not able to be inhibited by the surrounding inhibitory cells. The neurons are firing 'noise', unnecessary uninhibited extra electrical activity. One of the IM research results presented a few years back spoke about this exact phenomenon in children with attentional challenges. Children with attentional challenges tend to have extra 'noise' in their brains. After IM training this noise became quieter, closer to the typical populations amounts of noise.

Dr. Rubenstein has also identified Fgf's that especially impact the frontal lobes and the cerebellum. Many IM gains seems to be related to gains in frontal lobe and cerebellum functioning. I believe IM helps to reconnect connectivity issues through out the brain, but especially in the frontal lobes (in charge of planning, sequencing, time management, organizing, inhibiting, all called executive functions) and cerebellum (the movement area).

Anticipation - What's it look like in the brain

Recent fMRI's research shows anticipation, a very complex mental task, activates many parts of the brain that scientists hadn't expected to be activated. Many of these areas also have been shown to fire in IM tasks. Click here for the article.

Think about it, in IM you are anticipating every single hit,  initiating another choice, analyzing the feedback, and planning a response.  All these mental tasks are considered executive functions - higher level thought processes that I often see gains in with IM.  Parents report gains in these more often a few months out of IM  rather than immediately after IM  usually.  Sometimes it takes building the support skills first and then these higher level tasks can come on line a bit later. 

What parts of the brain do we use when we attend?

When speaking at the University of California's MIND Institute, Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Catherine Fassbender identified specific areas of the brain used when attending. I have developed 3 corresponding tasks that can be done during IM and have begun using them experimentally with some of my students enrolled in their second session. If, after viewing her presentation, you are interested in your child doing these particular tasks with me, let's talk. I am still in the experimental stage of using these, but I think they should be good.

How do we get from intention to action?

How is it that we intend to not eat that chocolate, yet when it appears before us, we drop it into our mouths? What is intention's connection to action? Dr. Ann Graybiel's UC Davis MIND Institute's October, 2008 Distinquished Presenter discusses this question. During her 6 pm presentation, my mind was firing wildly on how this new research is deeply connected to IM. The Basal Ganglia, shown by Dr. Neil Alpiner to be one of the deep structures in the brain activated by IM, has long been known to be the area of release and inhibition of movement.

ADHD: A massive problem with the sense of time!

A must see! If you have a child with attention issues, you should watch this presentation by Dr. Russell Barkley, a distinguished lecturer from the University of California’s MIND Institute. Research indicates that children with ADHD have difficulties in the executive systems, particularly the non verbal working memory. “The non verbal working memory is the origin of the sense of time, the subjective awareness of time. Which explains why ADHD so disrupts the individual's ability to deal with time. Why they are always late, never prepared, never organized.”

Dr. Barkley continues, “ADHD is a form of time blindness. ADHD children have a near sightedness to the future. Future events have to be immediate and compelling before the individual is capable of dealing with them. Events that lie at a distance across time are of no value to these children. They can’t muster anticipatory responses and prepare for future events. To put it in another way, the ADHD individual lives in the now, and past and future are of little consequence in the regulation of their behavior.’ He calls this deficit in the non verbal working memory, Temporal Neglect Syndrome ("Temporal" is often used for "timing" in scientific articles.).

“My theory of ADHD is that ADHD causes a massive problem with the human sense of time.” Dr. Russell Barkley.

In this presentation, Dr. Barkley speaks of 5 different executive functions that seem to be deficient in ADHD. Please check out the Data Spreadsheet posted this past summer showing gains in executive functioning across the board.