Building Mental Muscle: Conditioning Exercises for the Six Intelligence Zones

* Memory * Emotions * Language * Math * Visualization * Executive Planning & Social Interaction

The authors have distilled the latest findings in brain research into fascinating short reports accessible to all readers, adding exercises and self-tests designed to stimulate the cells in different brain zones. A skill used in one domain can cross over into another: For example, when you learn the pattern of number intervals in mathematics, you may perceive a pattern of musical intervals for the first time, and thus enjoy music even more. The exercises and puzzles are intriguing challenges; the self-tests offer many opportunities to rate your social intelligence, take your personality inventory, and gauge working memory.

For anyone interested in self-improvement and in how the brain really works, Building Mental Muscleis essential reading.

Some of the research findings in Building Mental Muscleinclude:

* The simple lifestyle changes that can boost the rate at which your brain grows neurons to keep your memory sharp

* Ways to trick your emotional brain into storing new information permanently and how to retrieve it from memory when needed

* How women's and men's brains process information differently

* How brains respond to stress, solve problems, recognize faces, and handle fear

* The discovery of a hitherto unknown class of receptor cells in your eyes that your brain uses to set its own internal clock

* How to change your mood without drugs or therapy

* What you can do to combat or even reverse the gradual decline of cognitive skills as you age

Your doctor may not have read about some of the research findings in this book.