“Does playing games to improve working memory work? If so, since my brain is only so big, would other parts of my brain reduce in functioning to accommodate for increases in working memory?” Our second question comes from Kelly Bertei, who asks:
Unfortunately, adults who learn an instrument do not see the same improvements. So, while the Brain Gym technique does not seem like a good candidate, encouraging your students to learn an instrument could go a long way in improving their cognitive functions. You can find a nice review on the topic here: The Musician's Brain. And indeed, early-trained musicians have better spatial and verbal memory, attention, mathematics skills, and perform better on other tasks involving the integration of multiple sensory and motor inputs. taking visual and auditory input (reading and listening to music, respectively) and coordinating it with motor output (playing the instrument) – the connections between these brain areas become stronger and more tightly connected, resulting in better sensorimotor integration. The hypothesis is that because musical training involves the coordination of multiple modalities – i.e. This collection of axons between the midline is called the corpus callosum, and research has shown that the corpus callosum is larger in early-trained musicians compared to late-trained musicians and nonmusicians, especially if the training began before the age of 7. The axons are covered in a white substance called myelin, which acts as an insulator, protecting the electrical communication between neurons from leakage, and increasing the speed at which the signal can travel down the axon. Neurons on either side of the cortex send axons across the midline, which then make synapses with neurons on the other side. The best studied example of this is musicians who began training during early childhood. The underlying science – that performing an activity that simultaneously engages both cerebral hemispheres can improve cognition – does appear to be true. That being said, we can’t completely rule out the general idea that engaging in crossing the midline exercises has a positive effect on learning because this idea has not been rigorously tested. On their website, they address why there are no peer-reviewed articles supporting their claims, explaining that because a scientific study would require that some students receive the Brain Gym training (the experimental group), and some receive no training or a different kind of training (control group), it would be unethical to deprive some student’s of the Brain Gym training.Īny study like this would only last a few weeks or a few months at most, so this excuse is pretty weak, and is a huge red flag with regard to the validity of their claims. All of the papers they use to support their claims are self-published in the journal The Brain Gym Global Observer. In fact, there are no peer-reviewed, controlled studies testing whether or not these exercises do anything at all. Those are quite extraordinary claims, and as the saying goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, of which they provide little to none. They call their program “educational kinesiology,” and claim that engaging in activities that “recall the movements naturally done during the first years of life when learning to coordinate the eyes, ears, hands, and whole body” can dramatically improve concentration and focus, memory, academics, physical coordination, relationships, self-responsibility, organization skills, and attitude.
This idea appears to have originated (or is at least most heavily propagated) by Paul and Gail Dennison and their commercial learning program called Brain Gym. One such claim that I have come across more frequently has to do with exercises that 'cross the midline.' It is suggested that by engaging in activities in which the right arm or leg is crossed over to the left side, connections between the right and left hemispheres of the brain are strengthened. Sadly, there is a great deal of misinformation circulating amongst teachers who are genuinely trying to incorporate brain research into their practice. As a novice, it has been difficult to sort out the pseudoscience from valid, data-supported information. “I am an elementary science teacher seeking to reach a better understanding of how the brain works. The first question comes from Allyson Thomley, who writes: In this edition of Ask a Neuroscientist, we’ll answer two questions that address a similar principle: Can you train to have a better brain? Graduate students take questions from the public and answer them on the blog Neuwrite West as part of their Ask the Expert series.
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