Top 10 Myths about the Brain

By Laura Helmuth / Source: Smithsonian.com

1. We use only 10 percent of our brains. 
This one sounds so compelling—a precise number, repeated in pop culture for a century, implying that we have huge reserves of untapped mental powers. But the supposedly unused 90 percent of the brain is not some vestigial appendix. Brains are expensive—it takes a lot of energy to build brains during fetal and childhood development and maintain them in adults. Evolutionarily, it would make no sense to carry around surplus brain tissue. Experiments using PET or fMRI scans show that much of the brain is engaged even during simple tasks, and injury to even a small bit of brain can have profound consequences for language, sensory perception, movement or emotion.

True, we have some brain reserves. Autopsy studies show that many people have physical signs of Alzheimer’s disease (such as amyloid plaques among neurons) in their brains even though they were not impaired. Apparently we can lose some brain tissue and still function pretty well. And people score higher on IQ tests if they’re highly motivated, suggesting that we don’t always exercise our minds at 100 percent capacity.

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Want to Be Smarter? Get Some Sleep

By Judith Kleinfeld / Source: Anchorage Daily News

A friend of mine is worrying himself sleepless about getting enough sleep. He is convinced that he just isn't smart after a short night's sleep.

He's right, finds Robert Stickgold, a Harvard medical professor, and Jeffrey Ellenbogen, chief of the sleep division at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Sleep increases your judgment, creativity and memory.

The advice to "sleep on it" before we decide to go to accept a new job or make other life choices, is backed up by the latest research.

Sleep makes you smarter, but you have to get enough sleep and the right kind of sleep. You need more than six hours, and most of us, especially teenagers, don't get nearly enough sleep to be sharp the next day.

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Limitless Brain Power Only 10 Years Away

What would you do if there was a magic pill that could help you conquer that to-do list or learn a second language as well as endless other possibilities? Would you take it?

In CBS’s hit show “Limitless,” the main character, Brian Finch, does. As a failed musician, Finch turns into a mastermind for the FBI after taking a pill called NZT.

Of course there’s no such thing as NZT, but for those of us looking to operate at a higher level of productivity, the answer may be at the hands of a doctor at Duke.

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The Secret European Experiment to Create Geniuses

Source: How to Become Anyone

She was hypnotized. Entranced into believing she was a powerful classical violinist. After her second violin lesson she'd ever taken... her instructor was so blown away by her newfound level of skill, she was immediately enrolled into the advanced class...

How did she do it?

Another test subject was hypnotized into thinking she was Raphael, the artist.

Before being hypnotized using this secret experimental method, she couldn't even draw a "smiley face." Within a month, she had the artistic skill of a professional designer.

Through these experiments and many more that followed... through endless hours of trial and error, a secret mental technique was developed that without hypnotic trance, caused people to become:

* more business savvy
* more confident
* more creative
* more artistic
* better at sports
* and much, much more...

Now for the first time ever you can also possess this secret mental technique that allows you to "pretend" and "adapt" the genius skills of absolutely anyone...

Do this. Imagine for a moment if you could be anyone, acquire the skills of any person, who would you want to be? What would you want to excel at more than anything else?

Think about that and then click here to learn more about the Secret Method: How to Become Anyone

Learning While You Sleep Might Be Possible After All

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to learn Japanese.

Linguists often say that the best way to learn a foreign language is to immerse yourself in it, and that’s what I did. For a while, I put post-it notes on items with their Japanese names on them, watched anime with the subtitles off and even fell asleep to kawaii Japanese podcasts whispering in my ear.

Learn by osmosis, right? Maybe even as I sleep something will stick, I thought.

It sounds utterly nonsensical — learn while you’re unconscious?! — but the idea of sleep learning has thrived for centuries. Eerily described in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in the 1930s, sleep was once thought to be a subliminal state similar to hypnosis, in which the person is susceptible to messages from the outside world.

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Smart People Stay Up Late, Do More Drugs, Have More Sex

What is the mark of an intelligent mind in our day and age? When we think of intelligent people, we may have been conditioned to envision them in a library somewhere studying. We associate intelligence with social reservation and good behaviour.

But what if the opposite were true? What if the ones who are most intelligent are engaging in behaviours grandma and grandpa wouldn’t approve of? Times have changed, and people who have a higher intelligence aren’t always interested in studying and following the rules.

This may sound a bit shocking, but a series of studies have come out showing that intelligent people stay up later, do more drugs, and have more sex. The people in our society who have the highest IQs are nocturnal and enjoy indulging in drugs and sex more often than people with a lower IQ.

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Simple Memory 'Cheats' to Make You More Intelligent

By Michael Masterman,
Author of The Cheat's Guide to Instant Genius

If you want to become more intelligent you'll also need to improve your memory skills.

The good news is that these skills are among the easiest to develop, with help from a few simple techniques and a bit of practice. Like everything else in this course, the more time you put into improving your memory, the better it will become.

There are entire books written specifically on the subject of improving memory, packed with methods and systems designed to make you a memory master. Our goal, however, is to help you make better use of your memory by providing you with some basic techniques that you can learn and begin to employ immediately.

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How to Be Less Stupid

By James Altucher

I'm really stupid. I can tell you in advance. I think at heart, if I work at it, I can be smart. But at the moment I'm largely an idiot. I feel I have the right knowledge but I let a lot of stuff get in the way. You know: "stuff". Worries, guilt, paranoia, grudges, resentment. Like, for instance: I resent the people who resent me. I think they resent me for no reason. So now I resent them. What a circle-jerk!

I used to think when I added stuff to my brain I'd get smarter. But this is not true. For instance, if I look up when Charlemagne was born I'd just add a fact to my head which I will forget tomorrow. This won't make me smarter. Subtraction, and not Addition, is what makes the window to the brain more clear, wipes away the smudges, opens the drapes.

One example: the day I lost the deal to do Tupac's website, I had a chess lesson afterwards. I couldn't play at all. It was like I didn't even know the rules. My instructor said, "what's wrong with you today?" But I was ashamed. And angry at myself. So my intelligence went way down. Like 80% down.

So here's my great list.

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How to Unleash Your Inner Genius

By Michael Masterman
Author of The Cheat's Guide to Instant Genius

Have you ever wondered what it is that makes a genius unique?

What makes him or her stand out from the crowd? Is it the size of his/her brain, the way he or she was brought up, or is intelligence simply passed down from one generation to the next?

Before we take a look at exactly what genius is, let's clear the air once and for all and find out some of the things genius definitely is NOT.

Forget I.Q. tests, levels of education, how big your forehead is: genius has very little to do with any of these things.

You can't inherit your intelligence from parents or grandparents, nor can you become intelligent simply by passing an exam or two. And even if your brain is the largest in the world, that doesn't necessarily mean you'll use it in a more intelligent way.

If you're a well read person you might have a lot of knowledge on a variety of topics. You may even have a degree or diploma in your favorite subject. Each of these is a positive sign of the potential for intelligent thinking, showing that you have drive, determination, and the ability to reach certain goals.

... But it doesn't make you a genius.

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How to Memorize a Deck of Cards in 60 seconds

To become a Grand Master of Memory -- fewer than 100 in the world can claim that title -- you need to satisfy each of the following in competitions approved by the World Memory Sport Council:

• Memorize the order of 10 decks of cards in 60 minutes.
• Memorize 1,000 random digits in 60 minutes.
• Memorize the order of one deck of cards in less than two minutes.

Ed Cooke first hit this trifecta when he was 23. He later came to international attention when he coached journalist Joshua Foer from ground zero to U.S. Memory Champion in one year, a feat chronicled by Foer in the best-sellerMoonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything.

To win that championship, Foer had to memorize 120 random digits in five minutes, successfully commit to memory the first and last names of 156 strangers within 15 minutes, and (last but not least) memorize a shuffled deck of cards in less than two minutes.

Ed has memorized a shuffled deck of cards in competition in 43 seconds. Of all memory feats, none is a more compressed act of mental athleticism.

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Meditation for Students: Top 10 Ways Meditation Boosts Your Brain & Body

As the semester draws to a close, many college students are starting to feel the pressure of completing projects, writing final papers, giving presentations, and of course, studying for finals. 

Add to that holding down a job and you've got a perfect storm of stress. How to calm your mind? Meditation may be the answer.

Scientific studies are increasingly revealing some pretty amazing benefits of regular meditation practice, both for the general public and students in particular.

Meditation can help you better deal with stress and may make your life as a student healthier and happier overall, a great tradeoff for just a few minutes of mindful thinking a day.

Read on to learn about some of the latest and most telling studies on student meditation to learn the amazing benefits it can offer you this finals season and beyond.

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85 Brain Hacks to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better in the 21st Century

One of the most valuable things you can ever attain in your life doesn't have a dollar value: it's knowledge. Whether you head to college, learn on the job, or just make a hobby out of exploring new and exciting topics, learning is one of the best things you can ever do for yourself, personally, professionally, or otherwise.

So, why not learn to do it better? We've collected some amazing tips and tricks you can use to help you get the most out of the time you spend learning. From study suggestions to brain hacks, these tips are sure to help you learn faster, deeper, and better, no matter the subject.

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Deepak Chopra's Secrets to a Better Brain

There are many books on the market that focus on treating the brain like any other organ of the body. To improve the brain, they advise eating a balanced diet, getting enough sleep and avoiding toxins like alcohol and nicotine.

These are sound bits of advice, but in my own book, Super Brain, written with professor Rudolph Tanzi of Harvard Medical School, the emphasis is on the brain's uniqueness. The secret to improving your brain is to understand that uniqueness.

The brain is the only organ that changes instantly according to how the mind relates to it. You can relate to your brain in positive or negative ways, and depending on which one you choose, your brain cells, neural pathways and areas of high and low activity will be altered.

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Meditation Boosts Brain Power

Meditation is a century's old practice of relaxing the mind, improving thought power and exercising both the body and soul.

Meditation comes down through so many religious beliefs as well such as Buddhism and Hinduism. It can also be termed as a global practice because it is common within all religion, countries and cultures.

What exactly is meditation anyway?

According to Rob Nairn (the author of the book What is Meditation?) : "It [Meditation] is a highly alert and skillful state of mind because it requires one to remain psychologically present, and with whatever happens in and around one, without adding to or subtracting from it in any way."

So many scientific experiments have been carried out for years to find out the influence meditation has on the human brain.

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Improve Your Memory with Silly Stories

Source: Memory Improvement Techniques

You've heard about several memory enhancing techniques. Linking and associating, creating a story out of several items you need to remember.

There are in fact, many ways how you can remember important information such as numbers, events, errands and names. The challenge is how to make all the information easy to retrieve, out of the top of your head in a random situation.

Memory techniques work on anything that you like to master. 

There are things you may need to work on in memorizing something for the first time but all information has techniques on how they can all be memorized. It just takes a lot of interest and enthusiasm to be able to absorb all the information we want to understand and remember.

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Super Brain Yoga - One Simple Move to Make You Smarter

From the book Superbrain Yoga

Superbrain yoga, a no-brainer? Suppose there was a yoga that wouldn't just give you Deepak's calm, Gaga's bod or DDP's pluck, it would actually make you smarter. No, it's not math! (Though you may want to brush up on the 'rithmatic from time to time there.)

That's what this technique called Superbrain Yoga promises, in just 5 minutes a day. We have clearly been wasting our time.

What in the gray matter is Superbrain Yoga? Created by Master Choa Kok Sui, the method is more or less yoga moves and breathing techniques combined with pressing acupressure points to stimulate neuropathways in the brain to synchronize right and left hemispheres. Et voila! We are all Einsteins. Er, kinda.

WATCH A VIDEO OF THE EXERCISE HERE...

9 Ways to Make Yourself Smarter

By Jamie Condliffe / Source: Gizmodo.com

It often seems like everything you do, touch, or eat can make you smarter or dumber. But that's not quite the case.

There are, of course, plenty of ways to tweak your life in order to gain yourself a little cognitive advantage over the competition. The problem is that some have very little real effect. Others are more trouble than they're worth. 

Here's a guide to some of the most effective ways to boost your brain power. 

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Accelerate Your Brain's Evolution

Source: Brain 2.0

The human brain sets us apart from all other species on Earth by enabling us to achieve all sorts of wonders that practically no other species have been able to do.

Feats such as walking on the moon, composing masterpieces of art, literature, music, innovating and incorporating technology into our lives... all these have been made possible because of that spongy, three-pound mass of fatty tissue.

Yet, for all of its comparisons to our own modern technological innovations – such as a telephone switchboard and supercomputer – the human brain is a far more complex mechanism than we can ever imagine.

Despite the vast leap in technological advancements, we still have yet to discover the full extent of the human brain's capabilities.

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