Sahweet beautiful Music!

Music is powerful…a three minute song can lighten my mood and I can’t imagine working the treadmill without my iPod.  Today’s dailyinfographic is about how good music is for the brain.  It’s inspiration for me to sign up for guitar lessons this week.  

Letters or numbers?

I have struggled with math.  I can remember my father helping me with math homework in my primary years.  They are not happy memories as he was frustrated that I couldn’t get it as easily as my siblings.  I recently stumbled upon an article about dyscalculia which explains my preferences to processing words over numbers.  Dyscalculia is a learning disability with math just as dyslexia is a learning disability in reading.    Dr. Daniel Ansari, a neuroscientist is on it.  He’s studying this to get a better understanding of the root causes in the brain that make up math learning.  Hopefully, it will lead to better educational techniques for those of us that see math like the lady below.   By the way, being diagnosed with either disability has nothing to do with intelligence levels.   All brains can adapt, overcome, and learn…that’s a key element in why I call the organ “blessed brain.”

Mirror? Mirror? On the Brain

Recently, neuroscience has discovered the “mirror” neuron which has been dubbed the “Gandhi” neuron as it relates to empathy (Tell Tale Brain by V.S. Ramachandran, 2011).  Empathy is the ability to have concerns or see another person’s viewpoint outside of your own.  Every action or emotion we observe in others is recorded, stored and even rehearsed in our mind.  This means, much of our “self” gets defined by what we see and take in from others.  These mirror neurons help us calculate what the actions or thoughts of another person will be.  We humans are the best species on the planet with this ability of reading each other.  It might be why most religions have some version of the “golden rule” treating others as one would want to be treated.  The video below is from TED and it’s V.S. Ramachandran, a favorite neuroscientist of mine, explaining how it all works.

Use it or Lose it!

Big Think is an awesome resource.  A wide variety of subjects are covered there by experts in their respective fields.  It’s a great forum to allow for interaction with these specialists and there are countless short videos explaining what they are thinking about and studying.

This particular one gives a great overview about neuroplasticity.  The jist of it is that neuroscience is finding out that our brains benefit from new and different activities.  Most exciting, there is some promising new hope with psychological therapies to help those that suffer from anxiety, depression, or other mood disorders.  I’m pretty sure that means everyone could benefit from this research since most will suffer a bout or two of depression at least once in a lifetime and drugs just seem to be a short-term fix.

Who are you?

In a previous job, I had long conversations with HR people about the Myers Briggs personality inventory.  I was resistant to it from the get go.  It made me uncomfortable…..laying all my cards on the table seemed invasive.  I didn’t like the idea of being boxed-in and cataloged.  What about inner change and growth for the better?  I noticed MBTI advocates saying things like “It’s my temperament to be this way.”  Which could be translated into “please accept my annoying behaviors.”   I also thought that the tests couldn’t be accurate if taken in the context of an employer-employee relationship.  Wouldn’t the employee just pick answers that would appease the employer?  And I began to wonder how did the types get inventoried?  How many people did they test to develop the characteristics?  Some of these HR people swore by the tests claiming it helped understand each other in the workplace.  Years later, I borrowed the book, Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey, about the topic and read through it.  This was kind of a big deal because even the title of the book annoyed me.  Can’t we all just “understand” and accept each others preferences with plain old “get to know you” conversations?

Cover via Amazon

I did however, identify with some of the inventory descriptions and could see other traits in my husband and son…For example, we are, all 3 introverts.  I do not mean shy.  Rather, we value quiet alone time to recharge.  I have friends that are the opposite and crave constant interactions, filling their calendar with social events daily.

Recently, I took the inventory again at my community college to help determine a field of study.  My results were the same, INFJ only now my “Feeling” score was quite a bit lower.  The test didn’t really narrow down any career desires, rather it just confirmed what I already knew…And there is comfort in confirmation with decision making so I’m glad I took it again.

There are quite a few online tests that can be taken for free and don’t take much time.  What do you think about these tests?  Isn’t it worth the time to find out Who are you?  Or do you already know?  

Daily dose of Brain data for the Brain

I subscribe to Daily Infographic.  It’s the one if those daily emails that I get excited to open and read.  Sometimes, they provide data on stuff that I could care less about, but for the most part I really enjoy what they produce.  Like food for thought – a daily dose of intelligence in an easy quick way to digest.  Here’s one on the brain: