I keep thinking of the old Mel Brooks movie "Young Frankenstein" where an "Aby Normal" brain was put into the doctor's monstrous creation with hilarious results.
OK, so I really can't do a brain transplant on you yet, but imagine for a second I could. Who would you pick?
I took an informal survey among friends family and patients once -- here were some of the top contenders.
- Jesus
- Napoleon Hill
- Muhammad Ali (before his Parkinson's!)
- Bach or Beethoven
- Julius Caesar
- Matt Furey
But the number one choice by far from most of the people was:
My own, thank you!
You see while everybody thought it might be fun to step into another identity and walk a mile in their shoes, most felt that they liked their own brains just fine.
If only they could be made to perform better and not have the momentary senior moments or brain flatulence that seem to plague all of us from time to time.
Well, I have great news for you.
You are living in the Brain Age.
Thanks to the advent of the electronic brain (the computer) we can now advance the research of our brains at lightning speed.
Here are some of the key features that brain research has recently shown.
1) You can teach an old dog new tricks!
While our brains are most "plastic" (able to learn complex tasks without inhibition) before we are 6 years old, we never lose that plasticity totally. Even an 80 or 90 year old brain can learn new tasks if it has been kept healthy.
2) Women really are from Venus and men really are from Mars in a figurative sense.
Numerous studies have shown that the female brain is less "lateral" than the male brain.
You've probably heard that the left brain is where all the hard, concrete, logical things happen and the right brain is where the creative, poetic and musical things happen.
Between the left and right brain is a big bridge of nerves called the Corpus Callosum. The bigger the bridge the faster the 2 brains can talk to each other and the more brain power you can harness.
Women tend to have bigger bridges than men and most studies indicate that they can use both halves of their brains for tasks that men use primarily one half for.
Usually these studies are done using a technique called PET scanning that shows where the brain activity is highest during certain tasks.
It's OK though, guys, because as you'll see below you can activate these bridge pathways and get them to work better by spending some time with your right brain.
Let me give you an example.
Many of us know how to play a musical instrument. I have a good friend who is a very talented piano player. He can sit down with some very complex pieces and read the thing and play it note for note right off the bat.
But he cannot improvise one note. Take the sheet music away and he is lost.
This is how I know that the language of music was invented by a guy.
Who else would make it a totally left brained activity!
I have another friend who can't read a note but if he hears something he likes (and the key word here is 'likes' because he won't pay attention to anything he doesn't like) he can play it.
But it never sounds like the original piece. This guy has to improvise. He takes jazz standards and makes them rock standards. I've heard him play Bach to a reggae beat.
I don't think he could play the music the way it was intended if you paid him. So a PET scan on this guy would light up that right brain pretty good I can tell you.
Now here is where the fun begins.
Put these two together and you have some amazing fireworks.
Which is better?
Personally, I'd take the improv gift since that is where creative genius seems to lie. My left brained sight-reading friend must have heard me say that one day because just 2 months ago I heard him play again.
No music, just bluesy improv and it was amazing.
He actually smiled when he played the music.
He'll be the first to tell you he takes Instant Einstein and it makes a huge difference.
Hint: even if you are not musically inclined, learning an instrument would be a great way to kick your brain into high gear.
I have a lot more to tell you but we are running out of space so I will pick up the golden thread tomorrow with some more amazing brain facts including:
Why practice makes perfect, and why Einstein was brilliant!
See you then.
Have a great day, use those brains and don't forget the Instant Einstein.
Dr Dave
P.S. My recommendation for learning to play a musical instrument is the harmonica. It's very cheap, very portable, causes a fun ruckus with airport security and is easy to learn and improv with.
It makes you instantly "cool" and allows you to wear "I spy" sunglasses from the early 1960's without ridicule.
And it makes a great centerpiece to weave family stories around (remember those airport security stories). If you don't like it you haven't spent an arm and a leg.
A great source of both harmonica and other musical instruction is:
http://www.steelguitarzone.com/Hohner_blues_band.htm
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