The Real Brain Game: Harnessing Neuroplasticity to Improve Our Mental Equipment And Brains Fitness

In preparation for the new season of National Geographic's Brain Games, their producers asked me to participate in a virtual roundtable around this thought-provoking question:

"Do you think individuals can train their brain to respond in a particular way to certain situations, or do you think our brain's innate "startle response" is too hardwired to alter?"

My short answer: Yes, we can train our brains.

My long answer: Not only we can, but we SHOULD train our brains to respond in particular ways to certain situations. That's why we have a human brain to begin with...

At the core, the question above goes back to the old "Nature vs. nurture" debate. It's pretty clear by now that both matter. As the growing field of epigenetics has shown, genes and lifestyles interact with each other.

The idea that we are genetically "hardwired" for many behaviors is deeply misleading. Yes, we are born with many predispositions, but how those are expressed depend on our lifelong experiences, thoughts, feelings and decisions. We are ALWAYS training our brains, for good or for bad. 

The range of possibility--while certainly not unlimited--is much larger than previously thought. The new fundamental understanding is "cells that fire together wire together." The brain never stops changing through learning (this is called "brain plasticity"). And the brain, and the mind that emerges from it, is of course the driver of behavior. 

The Brain Games TV program explores multiple examples of how learning changes your brain, such as what happens to the brains of taxi drivers, musicians and experienced meditators...including how brain training can take over the innate "startle response" and others.

Why does this matter? Why SHOULD we figure out ways to better train our brains and harness our human potential?

Several years ago I had the opportunity to visit Oslo's Nobel Peace Center. Exposed to so many inspiring stories by Prize Winners, it struck me what a beautiful example they provide of our power to transcend our genes and even our "memes" (cultural and environmental influences, as coined by biologist Richard Dawkins).

See this powerful paragraph by Dawkins, in his influential book The Selfish Gene:

"The point I am making now is that, even if we look on the dark side and assume that individual man is fundamentally selfish, our conscious foresight-our capacity to simulate the future in imagination- could save us from the worst selfish excesses of the blind replicators. We have at least the mental equipment to foster our long-term selfish interests rather than merely our short-term ones...We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism-something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole history of the world. We are built as gene machine and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators."

Please notice these fragments...

-- "conscious foresight-our capacity to simulate the future in imagination 

-- "our "mental equipment to foster our long-term selfish interests rather than merely our short-term ones" 

-- "ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism"
What if we can train and expand that "mental equipment"? What if we are witnessing the birth of a new "brain fitness" culture and toolkit, combining old meditative and cognitive techniques with new digital platforms, to help us improve imagination, working memory, emotional self-regulation, altruism, and more?

Shouldn't we find ways to adopt them, in our schools, our workplaces, our lives, and become better and happier human beings?

In my mind, that's the real brain game. To find ways to harness our brain's lifelong neurogenesis (creation of new neurons) and neuroplasticity (how the brain changes itself responding to experience) to lead happier, fuller lives.

by #SharpBrains

Controlling Life: The Choices You Make Will Help You Control Life

Controlling life is about making choices that will result in moving you closer to the sort of person you want to be or to the kind of life you want to have. To achieve this you have to have a clear understanding of what you want. This means you have to have a set of rules or a standard of behavior or clear goals in your life so you know what you want. Your choices - your decisions - will put you in control so you get the outcomes you want.

Here are some examples of how you can control life through the choices you make:

1. One of your goals is to advance in your job, which would also be an important step in your career. You have been asked to make a presentation to an important client or to management or board members. This is a great opportunity to show your talents. You get a phone call from an old friend to catch up the night before the presentation. You know this always ends in a late night drinking session. 


You know if you do this you will not be at your best. You need to be cleared-headed and well prepared, and you wanted to go over the presentation once more. You can decide that your job is not going to run your life and go out that night or you can postpone the meeting with your friend. You have a choice to make, which puts you in control. The decision you make will control the outcome. 

2. You have a job interview with a company that you have been keen to work for as it will move you in the right career direction. You know they are a conservative company and they like their people to dress conservatively and the men to be clean-shaving. 


You do not like this style of dress and, as a woman, you like to wear fairly casual clothes or short dresses or clothes that show off you cleavage. As a man, you prefer not to wear ties or to wear business suits or you have a full beard in which you take some pride. You have a choice: to present yourself in the best way to get the job or dress as you please. Your choice determines the outcome. 

3. Your doctor tells you to lose some weight and do some exercise, otherwise you will probably have some health problems in the future. You are already feeling uncomfortable with your weight and you don't feel as healthy as you would like. But to lose weight means you will have to cut down on or give up some of your favourite foods. Some of these are a very important part of your lifestyle: you enjoy dining out with friends or having a few drinks at the end of the day. You do not want to have to change this. You have to make a choice - enjoy your lifestyle now and pay later or change your lifestyle and enjoy a healthier way of life. 

You are in control of your life because you have the power to choose.


Controlling life is about exercising the power of choice, which influences outcomes. You cannot completely control life and all its uncertainties, but you can shape life to your liking and build the life you want by the choices you make. To this extent, you can take control of life.