Bruce McNaughton, a professor of psychology and physiology, and his colleague David Euston have shown that, during sleep, the reactivated memories of real-time experiences are processed within the brain at a higher rate of speed. That rate can be as much as six or seven times faster, and what McNaughton calls "thought speed."

If you've had a similar experience, an imagery or concept can be transferred nearly instantly – 6-7 times faster than real-time. This means you can read a book at super speed (called speed reading). You can also do Rapid Eye Technology, which uses a rapid visual and auditory script and process.

Memory stores patterns of activity in modular form in the brain's cortex. Different modules in the cortex process different kinds of information — sounds, sights, tastes, smells, etc. The cortex sends these networks of activity to a region called the hippocampus. The hippocampus then creates and assigns a tag, a kind of temporary bar code, that is unique to every memory and sends that signal back to the cortex. Each module in the cortex uses the tag to retrieve its own part of the activity.

The brain uses this biological trick because there is no way for all of its neurons to connect with and interact with every other neuron. It is still an expensive task for the hippocampus to make all of those connections. The retrieval tags the hippocampus generates are only temporary until the cortex can carry a given memory on its own.

The temporary nature of this tagging system means you can quickly change your mind repeatedly, reinterpret memories, and supercharge learning. Can you read at 25000 words per minute? Yes you can! And your brain will help you do it.

Source: David R. Euston
University of Arizona

In the course of evolution, people with certain genes fared better than others – and because they survived, they passed on their genes, making the general population more like them. For example, Europeans who came into contact with and yet survived the great plague did so because they had a genetic advantage over their neighbors. Because more of them survived to pass on their genes, their descendants tend to show that same genetic factor.

Unfortunately, a genetic advantage in one era or age (like the Ice Age) may be a killer in another (like now). More body fat in an Ice Age man made him more likely to pass on his genes; whereas today it could prevent him from doing so.

What genetic factors are a problem in your life? Do you have a predisposition for certain diseases or conditions (physically and psychologically)? How can you know which conditions or diseases are genetically affecting you? How can you make a change that has a higher probability of success on a genetic level – if it is possible at all?

There is a fundamental interaction between genetics and how our brains process the genetic information. We create and maintain brain circuitry based on a genetic blueprint modified by experience/learning (environmental factors). It's a delicate balance between nature and nurture. Neither genetics nor conditioning completely rule our life experience – rather, we experience the result of an interweaving between the two – kind of like the weaving of DNA.

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Here’s a great exercise for self improvement! According to new research by Prof. Avi Karni and Dr. Maria Korman of the Center for Brain and Behavior Research at the University of Haifah, a ninety minute daytime nap helps speed up the process of long term memory consolidation. Now that is a self-help regimen I can get on board with!

“We still don’t know the exact mechanism of the memory process that occurs during sleep, but the results of this research suggest the possibility that it is possible to speed up memory consolidation, and in the future, we may be able to do it artificially,” said Prof. Karni.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ ’bout! Artificial sleep! (What? Like hypnosis or Rapid Eye Technology?!!)

In the study, the group that slept in the afternoon showed a distinct improvement in their task performance by that evening, as opposed to the group that stayed awake, which did not exhibit any improvement. Following an entire night’s sleep, both groups exhibited the same skill level. “This part of the research showed that a daytime nap speeds up performance improvement in the brain. After a night’s sleep the two groups were at the same level, but the group that slept in the afternoon improved much faster than the group that stayed awake,” stressed Prof. Karni.

A second experiment showed that another aspect of memory consolidation is accelerated by sleep. It was previously shown that during the 6-8 hours after completing an effective practice session, the neural process of “how” memory consolidation is susceptible to interference, such that if, for example, one learns or performs a second, different task, one’s brain will not be able to successfully remember the first trained task. However, when a group of participants was allowed a 90 minute nap between learning the first set of movements and the second, they did not show much improvement in the evening, but on the following morning these participants showed a marked improvement of their performance, as if there had been no interference at all.

“This part of the study demonstrated, for the first time, that daytime sleep can shorten the time “how to” memory becomes immune to interference and forgetting. Instead of 6-8 hours, the brain consolidated the memory during the 90 minute nap,” explains Prof. The elucidation of the actual mechanisms involved, say the researchers, could enable the development of methods to accelerate memory consolidation in adults and to create stable memories in a short time.

Until then, if you need to memorize something quickly or if your schedule is filled with different activities that require learning “how” to do things, it may be worthwhile to find the time for an afternoon nap. Or you could learn self-hypnosis or Rapid Eye Technology (RET)

Neuroscientist Fred H. Gage and his colleagues at the Salk Institute examined brain samples from mice. All of the mice showed vivid proof of what’s known as “neurogenesis,” or the creation of new neurons. But the brains of more athletic mice in particular showed many more. These mice, the ones that scampered on running wheels, were producing two to three times as many new neurons as the mice that didn’t exercise.

Since Gage’s discovery, scientists have been finding more evidence that the human brain is not only capable of renewing itself but that exercise speeds the process.

“We’ve always known that our brains control our behavior,” Gage says, “but not that our behavior could control and change the structure of our brains.”

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We learn from success better than we do from failure.

It comes as no surprise to me that a MIT study has concluded that we learn from success better than we do from failure.

“We have shown that brain cells keep track of whether recent behaviors were successful or not,” Earl K. Miller, Professor of Neuroscience at MIT’s Institute for Learning and Memory said. Furthermore, when a behavior was successful, cells became more finely tuned to what the animal was learning. After a failure, there was little or no change in the brain – nor was there any improvement in behavior. (Neuron, July 30, 2009)

If you want to learn something, consider chunking down your “lessons” into steps in which you succeed more easily – increasing the difficulty of success only slightly as you go along.

Nothing builds success like more success!

Consider your goals – certainly you’ll feel accomplished if you succeed. But what if you fail? What then? Do you have an “intermediate” goal you’ll achieve if you fall short of your “big” goal? In this case, you’ll have succeeded – and learned from the experience more than if you had simply failed.

Or, what if you do “fail” – what then? What have you succeeded at in the process of “failing”? What positive outcome did you achieve? Maybe you made a mess of one thing but scored at another in the process. What is it you did achieve? You may need to look hard – and in the finding, maybe you’ll discover the learning, too.

Study authors include Earl K. Miller, the MIT Picower Professor of Neuroscience, former MIT graduate student Mark H. Histed, now a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School, and former postdoctoral fellow Anitha Pasupathy, now an assistant professor at the University of Washington. This work is supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the Tourette’s Syndrome Association.