The human head weighs eight pounds — at least that’s what the kid in the movie, Jerry Maguire claims. According to Google, the human head does weigh somewhere between eight and 12 pounds. I feel sorry for the person with a 12-pound head. The weight of the world must be on his shoulders. There also is a correlation between brain size and IQ. I’m not sure if there’s a relationship between brain size and head size, but it seems possible that someone could have a huge head with a very small brain rattling around. 

In 1974, the real life daughter of a famous publishing family, Patty Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army and brainwashed into becoming an accomplice. She participated in a bank robbery for which she was later convicted. Yet, even with all of this fanfare, a strictly behaviorist view of the brain became outmoded. Sure, someone could become brainwashed, but only under the most unlikely of conditions would the values and thinking of a person be permanently altered.  

The model of the brain that emerged was very similar to early computers of the same era. The brain, like a computer, accepts input; and based on the type of hardware, that input would eventually come out in some way — yes, the output. The more scientists study the brain, it seems, the more they conclude that things aren’t really set in stone. Welcome to the era of Brain Plasticity.

The first applications of this idea were developed for those who suffered a neurological or physical injury. It was found that brain activity associated with a given function can move to a different location in the brain. For those who lose their sense of smell, their brain’s ability to process smell may be able to return as the brain moves those functions to a different part of the brain. The process of neurogenesis, or the formation of new brain cells, can occur regardless of the age of the person and can be prompted by experience. As a result, the brain is no longer considered to be an unchanging mystery but a sort of machine that can be reprogrammed. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of therapy that maintains the brain can be reprogrammed. Through stimulation by sound and sight, it is thought that the person is able to better process certain feelings and memories. It has been used extensively to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Scientists have determined that environmental enrichment improves mental functioning in laboratory animals. Animals who are given mental stimulation in the form of simple games have developed larger brains, more brain cells and more connections between those brain cells. Studies of the elderly have found that those who practice complex mental tasks such as Sudoko or learning a new language are able to stay alert and accomplish other tasks better.

Is the idea of the brain as a computer valid, or is it just another passing fad related more to our society’s inventions? As our views of information have advanced, so also has our understanding of the brain. It’s possible that human beings have created something very much like the brain, and now we can look back through this portal in the other direction and learn more about ourselves. Scientists and others are working to exploit this knowledge by creating tools to help us manipulate the power of our brains. 

Initially, these tools were in the form of very boring scientific exercises, but increasingly they are in the form of games. According to the New York Times, consumers in 2006 were expected to spend $80 million on brain exercise products. Probably, the most popular of these products is the software program, Brain Age, which runs on the portable Nintendo DS.

Brain Age is based on the work of Dr. Kawashima, a Japanese neuroscientist who theorizes that completing special brain exercises can help us be more mentally alert for longer. Nintendo claims that Brain Age helps players flex their mental muscles, by having players solve simple math and logic puzzles, read aloud, and even do Sudoko puzzles. As a result of all this activity, the game assigns you a certain Brain Age. Presumably if your brain’s age is higher than your biological age, you’re in trouble.

But does this really work? Studies of the effectiveness of these products don’t seem very conclusive, in part, because of something called the practice effect. In other words, it’s difficult to measure whether we just get better at solving the puzzles because we’ve practiced them or if the activity really results in improved functioning in other areas of life. 

Scientists theorize that there are two types of intelligence: crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence consists of things we know and have learned over a long period of time, like 2+2=4. Fluid intelligence is concerned with our working memory and our ability to process unique experiences and situations. Playing a game like Brain Age may help our crystallized intelligence, but for a brain exercise to be really productive, it should improve our fluid intelligence.

In April 2008, The National Academy of Sciences released a paper describing a new type of brain exercise called Dual-N-Back. Preliminary studies indicate that those who completed the exercise not only improved in their ability, but also, improved their overall functioning. They had better short-term memories and an increased ability to solve problems. Also, the more they practiced the test, the better they did on seemingly unrelated tests of intelligence; and the more they played the game, the better they got. More importantly, they became better at other tasks related to short-term memory and fluid intelligence.

The tool for completing these brain exercises is available for free to anyone with a computer. The program, fittingly called, The Brain Workshop, is available from http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/. By practicing in the Brain Workshop daily, your brain could begin to function better. Ongoing research is being conducted to determine exactly how this computer game affects the brain. 

Computers have helped us unlock some of the mysteries of the brain, and have given us an opportunity unimaginable in a different generation. In a relative short period of time the human race has come all the way from studying bumps on a persons head (phrenology) to predict their personality, to changing the structure and capacity of the brain by playing a simple game. Ultimately it doesn’t really matter if your brain weighs eight pounds as long as you give it enough exercise to develop.

Reference

Smart Software, Wired Magazine, April 2008. http://
www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/04/smart_software.
The Proceedings for the National Academy of Science. http://www.pnas.org/

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