Athletes who compete at the highest level are able to do so because they train the muscles they depend on to maintain their competitive edge.  For example, basketball players are required to get high off the court to lob a pass or perform a jump shot over the outstretched arms of an opponent.  The extensor muscles in the leg such as the quadriceps and gastronemius/soleus groups are the ones that must perform. The same principle applies for each sport.  To maximize performance, attention must focus on the appropriate muscle groups.  Brain training follows similar rules .... to a degree.

When the brain performs a task, we see no external movement or activity associated with the neurons that were firing during a particular thought process.  To visualize what parts of the brain were activated, scientists use very sophisticated types of brain scanning devices.  The two most popular are PET scanning, for Positron Emission Tomography, and functional MRI scanning, which is a type of magnetic scan.  When a subject is required to perform a mental function such as an arithmetic calculation in one of these machines, specific regions of the brain 'light up.'  This is a reflection of the increased metabolic activity in the requisite areas of the brain necessary for the particular function required.  If the muscles of an athlete were imaged in a scanner while exercising, we would see analogous findings.

The optimal training for an athlete mandates a training regimen designed to work out specific muscle groups under competitive conditions.  The optimal training regimen for the brain is somewhat different.  The cognitive demands of modern day life necessitate a flexible thinking machine, not a robot that performs one thing well time and time again.  This observation mandates quite a different training approach.  What seems to work best is a program that turns on, activates, or lights up, large regions of the cerebral cortex-the surface of the brain which is the part of the brain most densely packed with nerve-to-nerve connections.

Going back to the lab for a moment, when asked to perform a unique task that has not been done before, it is common to see large areas of the brain turned on when visualized via a functional MRI scan.  This is not unexpected.  What is surprising, however, is when that same task is performed a second time or a third time, there is much less response on the scan.  Much smaller areas light up.  An athlete excels by repetitive training and the enhanced ability to maximally fire certain muscles.  The brain seems to 'learn' how to do something in a way that the second time around it functions better and faster with less work.  However, to get to this point it needs to start out performing a unique task.  Hence, it seems like novel situations are what the brain was built to handle and what it should be trained for and with.

What is the take home message from all of this science-speak?  It is that 'the brain loves novelty.'  Translated into modern living circumstances this means if you want to train your brain most effectively you should choose tasks that are out of the ordinary for your daily circumstances.  Simple examples include such basic chores as using the computer mouse with your left hand if you are right-handed, walking on an irregular surface with bare feet, going backwards up the stairs, or in a non-physical example, approaching a common problem in a unique way.  All of these are brain-training exercises.  What is worth noting is that as you activate, or engage, large regions of the brain for one task, these same regions may be required for the performance of other, possibly more complex and unrelated, demands.  Yet, you have trained them and thus enhanced their connectivity with neighboring neurons with these seemingly simple training tools. 

So, each day it would be a good idea to try and activate your brain in new, novel and different ways in challenging circumstances.  It will also be fun and exciting.  Enjoy your new brain workouts!