BUD BREWER
One Man's Opinion
Exercising the Brain
I read with great interest a study recently done by a friend of mine, William G. Callahan PHD, Emeritus Professor, Department of Special Education and Communication disorders, U. of Nebraska, Omaha. The subject was Nuerogenisis, the process by which our body creates new nerve cells. An introductory quotation by Antiago Ramon Cajal (1852-1934), “Every man can, if he so desires become the sculptor of his own brain” is challenging. Some recent claims that “Brain Games” will prevent Alzheimer’s disease may not be precisely true, but Robert Butler, President and CEO of the International Longevity Center does say that “a healthy brain is essential for longevity.” In Dr. Callahan’s study he says “While common belief may have been that nuerogenesis is a rather inactive process in most areas of the brain, recent research has demonstrated that nuerogenesis does continue into and throughout adult life in both vertebrate and invertebrate organisms.” So what actions are conducive to promoting the building or creating of a healthy brain. Certainly proper nutrition is essential. But I am convinced that there is truth in the proposal that exercising the brain will build brain “muscle” so to speak. How do we do this? Now you will discover where I am going with this proposition.
While there is more than one way to exercise the brain, such as reading, playing video games, chess etc., I believe the very best vehicle for working the brain is the game of Contract Bridge. It has everything necessary or desirable to build values as they relate to brain exercise. The game requires the learning of certain skills that together function in a way to maximize the process of brain exercise while enabling the participant to have fun and satisfaction (at least most of the time). Bridge requires communication skills, problem solving skills, reasoning, deducing, deception, planning, and of course with so many variables, a little luck. One skill not taught or perhaps not teachable is the process of inferential analysis, the ability to conclude a probability gained from what others do or don’t do and take advantage of it.
Getting back to the brain, it is an enormously complex structure with over 100 billion nerve cells. Each cell is connected to 10,000 others so the total number of connections is over 1000 Trillion or about the same size as the U.S. National Debt appears to becoming under the Obama Presidency (thought I wasn’t going to talk politics, right).
The problem with the game of bridge today is that the numbers who play it has diminished to probably less than 1 million people and most of those are seniors. In its heyday during the 1920s and 1930s when Ely Culbertson single handily generated extraordinary interest in the game with his challenges, with his wife as partner, to play anyone, anywhere for a sizable purse to the winner, the popularity of the game has been shoved aside by video mania where mind numbing games requiring digital dexterity have taken over the attention of the young. College used to be a breeder for bridge players but today the dorms and fraternity or sorority houses are filled with students who are much more serious about their studies or those who are spending spare time glued to the boob tube watching some athletic event. It was said that over 30 Million people played bridge at some level of skill in the 1930s.
But all is not lost. The American Contract Bridge League, the governing body of tournament bridge here in the Western Hemisphere, has established an educational foundation that will fund the teaching of bridge by supplying bridge text books, lesson plan manuals and playing cards to schools that form a bridge club and the students receive 16 hours of instruction. This program gained a boost in its operation when the results of a research study; “Scientifically Speaking” by Dr. Christopher Shaw of Carlinville, Illinois was recently published. Shaw enlisted a group of 100 students with similar academic ability and randomly picked 15 of them to learn and play bridge. Over the three study period, all the students were given the Iowa Test of Basic Skills each year for three years. What Shaw discovered, however, was that the students who learned to play bridge had a greater average increase in their ITSB scores than their non-playing classmates. In some cases this advantage was much as forty percent.
Learning of this study, a group from the Reno Unit of the ACBL decided to form a non profit company, Reno Youth Bridge Inc., to organize and administer the teaching of bridge to students in the Reno school system. This program is entering its second year this fall with what appears to be as many as 12 schools participating. The amazing thing is the number of volunteers from the Reno bridge world who have stepped up to serve as teachers or assistant teachers for this program. The members of each school’s bridge team will compete in at least one year end championship duplicate tournament. But it is hoped that the National American Bridge Championships scheduled for play here in Reno next March 2010 will offer our Reno Students a tournament participation in that Venue. Over ten Thousand bridge players will be coming to Reno and it would be an exciting opportunity for our youth bridge teams to be able to compete right along side the World’s best. It will be sort of like all our high school golf players being able to play at the Masters in a foursome with Tiger Woods. Now wouldn’t that be fun?
One Man’s Opinion–Bud Brewer
Reno Youth Bridge is a tax exempt organization operating under the provision of the 501(c)(3) section of the U. S. Tax Code.
Hello, Bud.
I’m sure that bridge is a wonderful way to keep the brain sharp. Other everyday methods that have been proposed by neuroscientists are chess and crossword puzzles.
But recent research demonstrates that we can go one better than maintaining brain function — scientists have shown that we can increase brain function! A study last year on Improving Fluid Intelligence by Training Working Memory (PNAS April 2008) recorded increases in mental agility (fluid intelligence) of more than 40% after 19 days of focused brain training. I was so impressed that I contacted the research team and developed a software program using the same method. Mind Sparke Brain Fitness Pro
Brain Fitness Pro has since been selected as a Top Ten gift pick by PC Mag and has been chosen by top brain gym vibrantBrains as an addition to their lineup.
Martin
http://www.mindsparke.com
Effective, Affordable Brain Training Software