November 18, 2016
Interview with Dr. Sandra Chapman, author of the book Make Your Brain Smarter
Mike Carruthers:
So much is being discovered about the brain and how to keep it active and healthy.
Dr. Sandra Chapman:
Believe it or not one of the major things you can do is what I call the brainpower of none.
Dr. Sandra Chapman Director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas and author of the book, Make Your Brain Smarter…
So when you’re dealing with a complex issue, when you think about that the deeper way to go is when your brain actually is doing nothing. That’s why a lot of times when we’re solving complex problems our best ideas come in the shower or in the middle of the night. Another thing you can do that makes it very healthy is not multi-tasking. Chronic multitaskers actually break down the neurons and interfere with the connectivity in the brain and make it work less efficiently.
Doing crossword puzzles is believed by many a great way to keep your brain healthy.
If you want to be good at crossword puzzles do those and you’ll get better and better at them. But it won’t make you better at clear thinking, decision making, inventiveness, creativity, sharpness.
What is quite effective in improving your brain function is what Dr. Chapman calls synthesizing information.
What synthesize means is take a newspaper article and say you’ve read it instead of saying what exactly did that article say? It would be what message did you take from that and why is it meaningful to either me or to you?
