Growing Your Brain
Several years ago we learned that London taxi drivers grew a small part of their hippocampus while learning “The Knowledge,” a detailed map of the streets of the city. Unlike most American cities, London is like a rabbit warren that has been growing organically for two thousand years. Despite the Great Fire of 1666, and the best efforts of Hitler’s Luftwaffe, the basic illogical structure has just become more complex over the centuries. The hippocampus is intimately involved in memory, navigation and in constructing a map of your surroundings. It has also been established that professional musicians and people who use Braille, all have increases in the size and complexity of a specific region of the brain.
We now learn from researchers in Germany that medical students show an increase in the amount of grey matter in the posterior part of the hippocampus and also in regions of the parietal lobes while studying for their exams. It is calculated that a medical student learns around 6,000 new words during his or her training, so it is no surprise that the brain changes to accommodate all this new information.
This new finding just adds to our knowledge about the plasticity of the brain. Even if you do not have to learn 6,000 new words and innumerable new concepts and practical techniques, it is worth knowing that learning any new knowledge or skills will likely grow specific regions of your brain.
So make a resolution to learn at least one new thing each day, and to work on developing a new skill. It doesn’t matter whether it is learning to knit or how to play chess. Each will likely help you.
Later this year we will be bringing out a book that teaches brain stretching skills based on the latest advances in brain science.
Watch this space!
Technorati tags: Hippocampus Parietal lobe Learning Medical students Neurogenesis
Dr. Richard G. Petty, MD is a world-renowned authority on the brain, and his revolutionary work on human energy systems has been acclaimed around the globe.
He is also an accredited specialist in internal and metabolic medicine, endocrinology, psychiatry, acupuncture and homeopathy. He has been an innovator and leader of the human potential movement for over thirty years and is also an active researcher, teacher, writer, professional speaker and broadcaster. He is the author of five books, including the groundbreaking and best selling CD series Healing, Meaning and Purpose. He has taught in over 45 countries and 48 states in the last ten years, but spends as much time as possible on his horse farm in Georgia.
