"Can you build a better brain?"

Post Reply New Topic

One of the strongest findings in neuroplasticity, the science of how the brain changes its structure and function in response to input, is that attention is almost magical in its ability to physically alter the brain and enlarge functional circuits.

identical input—tactile sensations and sounds—produces a different result, expanding a brain area or not, depending only on whether attention is being paid.

That might explain why skills we’re already good at don’t make us much smarter: we don’t pay much attention to them.

Simple aerobic exercise, such as walking 45 minutes a day three times a week, improves episodic memory and executive-control functions by about 20 percent

The second form of overall mental training is meditation, which can increase the thickness of regions that control attention and process sensory signals from the outside world. The training, she says, has shown success in enhancing mental agility and attention “by changing brain structure and function so that brain processes are more efficient,” the quality associated with higher intelligence.

I've read somewhere that the brain can change to develop new skills even after we become fully grown adults. Even though humans have a long adolescence compared to other animals due the length of time our brains need to mature, it doesn't have to stop developing when we reach full adulthood. We can still learn new things.

As an open question to both you guys or anybody else, what is it so different about the adult brain that makes it a bit harder to learn new things compared to the brain of a younger person?

Probably some brains are more plastic than others from the outset. I've seen it speculated recently that autistic brains could be more plastic than NT ones... Perhaps there are effects that come from over-plasticity. Like the porridge of the three bears, I imagine that the formation of a brain needs a certain conditional bandwidth to be just right..

Modern science (or more accurately the brains and minds of modern scientists) continues to interpret a wealth of data from a number of disciplines on the basis of the untested presumption that our neural system is fully functional and at the pinnacle of its evolution.
Such a presumption or untested belief is according to scientific protocol ‘bad science’. Even if there were no hint of dysfunction in the human condition it would be prudent to eliminate the remotest possibility of a flaw in our perception in what is effectively our only tool of investigation. Furthermore, if our brain and its associated perception, psychology and the behaviour and culture it manifests really are a reflection of its advanced ability then surely it would be hard to convince anyone at all that it may be seriously impaired.
That an increasing number of leading scholars and academics who have studied human behaviour and evolution are supporting such a scenario is in its self a major paradox.

he human brain, over a period of perhaps a million years, expanded at an increasingly rapid rate then, some 200,000 years ago, this expansion suddenly stopped. There is, to date, no plausible scientific explanation for either of these linked events.
Religious and mythic traditions of paradise inform us that we once lived in a benign state of perpetual wonder and joy but from this we regressed. The reasons for this are obscure. Do these apparently unrelated perspectives have something in common?
The new theory presented here and in Left In The Dark proposes the extraordinary evolution of our brain was influenced by changes in the activity of our own hormones. Such a seemingly innocuous idea has dramatic ramifications. It not only explains a number of recently uncovered anomalies within the human mind, but also makes sense of the stories of human degeneration that are preserved in virtually all cultural myths and religions from around the world.
Both perspectives tell the same unexpected and shocking story, humanity is suffering from a progressive neurodegenerative condition that has distorted our perception and altered our sense of self. This seemingly dire situation however has a positive side ,we still have unimaginable potential just waiting to be unlocked. There is a very real possibility of regaining our lost perceptual heritage.

‘Release the genius inside you – Shut down your brain’ announced the cover of the New Scientist in April 2004.

For the last three years scientists at the Centre for the Mind have been attempting to find out if a higher level of mental functioning may be available to all of us. Professor Allan Snyder has proposed that such functions are latent in everyone and are suppressed by the activity of the ‘evolutionary advanced’ rational side of the brain. By ‘switching off’ the left side of the brain, they hoped to turn ‘normal’ people into ‘geniuses’.


Initially treated with scepticism, recent results have caused shock waves in the scientific community. It appears that a whole new layer of function lies dormant in all of us. Have they found the key to our future evolution or have they unknowingly unlocked an ancient mystery that has its origins in prehistory?


A new theory of human evolution, proposed by Tony Wright and Graham Gynn in ‘Left in the Dark’, convincingly argues that the human brain owes part of its extraordinary development to the biochemistry of a specialist fruit diet. The hormone-related chemicals in tropical fruit initiated an internal hormone mechanism that increasingly promoted brain growth and elevated neural activity. When humans were forced from their tropical forest ‘Garden of Eden’ some two hundred thousand years ago, this link with biochemically rich fruit was lost.


The internal hormone mechanism that fuelled brain expansion stalled, and the process went into reverse. This caused a breakdown in part of the brain; some functions were lost and our sense of self changed for the worse – a golden age descended in stages to our present materialist, fear-based age of plastic and Prozac. These neurological effects are now being revealed and verified by today’s cutting edge science.


Professor Allan Snyder has suggested that the rational/conceptual mind functions by editing out much of the raw data (reality) that we gather via all our senses. He believes that many processes and skills are lost in this screening. The latest results from the Centre for the Mind do indeed show that if the rational brain areas are ‘shut down’ enhanced artistic and mathematical ability and improved memory emerge. These skills mirror those of autistic savants and also occur in some patients in which the left hemisphere has been damaged. Snyder thinks the human brain has ‘traded in’ these skills for the benefits of the logical reasoning mind. However his research may be beginning to uncover a much larger story. A number of his subjects have reported perceptual changes too – feelings of euphoria and bliss more normally associated with ‘peak experiences’ and meditation.


If the rational mind suppresses a ‘second self’ that, not only has a number of enhanced skills but also a sense of self that is vibrant, peaceful and connected, could there be something wrong with it? Could it be that all our stressful, niggling mental activity really does hide a place of energetic calm and well-being? It can be no coincidence that religious practices from all traditions and ages have been designed to pacify or negate the activities of the logical mind to allow a different sense of consciousness to come through.

Virtually all cultures preserve myths with an almost identical theme; that from a past golden age humanity has suffered a progressive degeneration. Is this near universal tradition based on real events? The answer appears to be ‘yes’. Recent scientific evidence supports the idea that we suffer from an inherited hormonal condition that has damaged part of our brain. In an unexpected twist, it is the damaged part that is not only driven to play the major role in telling us who we are but also dominates our basic biological functions.

Such a scenario explains some extraordinary anomalies that have emerged from research into how our brains function. It provides an underlying reason for the present crises in health, from the dysfunction of the immune system to the declining age of puberty. It also makes sense of the diverse mystic and religious practices that are said to lead to enlightened states or ‘oneness with God’.

If our common experience of near constant low-level fear and anxiety is actually a consequence of a neurological disorder, there may be a fundamental solution to the problem. We all know that fear, distrust and a lack of connection lead to conflict and ultimately war. Such a solution therefore could be of crucial importance to our global future.

This web site will introduce you to a radical new perspective on the human mind. It explains:

*

The rapid expansion of our large brain and why the expansion stalled.
*

The origins of the religious impulse.
*

And why today we may all be in very serious trouble.

Perceptually and physiologically we are a shadow of our ancestral selves, and unaware or deluded to the real nature of our condition. Even the emergence of male dominated culture and society may be a symptom of a fundamental developmental disorder within the human brain. Some evidence indicates that part of our delicate neural system fails to develop properly leaving us with a mind that distorts and limits our true sense of reality. We are born with this condition and it progresses with age. As the activity of testosterone on the developing brain is a significant factor, males suffer more than females.

Mystic and religious practices, either consciously or intuitively, were initiated as direct attempts to address this worsening condition. Studying these practices can provide insights into the nature of the disorder and begin to hint at the marvels of our full human potential.
The phenomenon of handedness is also a pointer to the condition we have identified. Experiments have shown than when the influence of the dominant side of the brain is reduced there is greater ambidexterity. Having one less useful hand therefore is a symptom of less than optimal brain function. Furthermore it appears that the cerebral dominance (having one side of the brain that overrides the other) is in itself a consequence of an abnormality in our way our brain develops.

It is widely assumed that our brain is more or less functional and yet there are many indications that this assumption is flawed. The possibility of a disorder in our major control system may shed light on many human anomalies: why for example, does male orgasm release the male seed while female orgasm fails to release the ovum – an inefficient system that now results in monthly ovulation and menstruation? Within these and many related stories lie clues to where we are today.

And where are we today? There is a widespread breakdown of the immune system, the age of puberty is declining which gives the brain less time to develop and even the digestive system may not be working as efficiently as it could. Failure to thrive, attention deficit disorder and the onward march of degenerative diseases are all indicative of the hastening decline in human functioning. The most significant effect however has been on the mind – particularly the male mind. As all our major institutions from governments, schools, to the military and even religions are products of the fearful and disconnected male perspective it is no wonder our world is in crisis.

These and many more pieces of a jigsaw have been pieced together in a new hypothesis that challenges the orthodox paradigm yet fits perfectly with ancient tradition and the latest scientific observations. Effectively part of our brain is damaged; our normal perception is severely limited and our basic physiology is inefficiently run, leading to disease and premature degeneration. Psychologically, fear and a desperate need for familiarity dominate us and we have created a world that reflects this condition.

Although at first sight this may appear a bleak scenario, it actually holds much hope. No-one can deny our world is facing a number of interrelated crises – and at the heart of all of them is the human mind. Correctly identifying the core problem is the first stage in finding a solution. As this neurological glitch within us is at least partially reversible, there is a real possibility of correcting the fault and allowing a return to our sense of earthly paradise.

As an open question to both you guys or anybody else, what is it so different about the adult brain that makes it a bit harder to learn new things compared to the brain of a younger person?