I’m so glad.

If you think the book looks fascinating, I don’t think it will disappoint. I say this not out of pride or conceit, but because that seems to be the reaction of those who are drawn to it. I never felt that I had created the core idea behind book but rather that I had found it. How can one feel pride about finding something? My task, or duty, was to try to communicate the idea as clearly as possible.

Please let me know how you find it,
Martin

Looks like an absolutely fascinating read and I see that the publisher says “In its contribution to human understanding, it is the most important book since Darwin’s The Origin of Species.”

I’ll be including this in my next order from amazon!

I’m sorry, I can’t speak to that directly. We’re not doing research at Mind Sparke (our software uses a training protocol designed by university researchers).

My experience is only with the training as used by myself and our customers. When people begin to train the program demands intense focus for ten seconds in the context of a one minute “set” that is repeated twenty times. This “set” is repeated 20 times with breaks. Most people find this overall demand for focus quite tiring.

People soon become more proficient and gradually train themselves to exert better focus and concentration. At the higher levels some people have reached the ability to stretch their high intensity focus from ten seconds to about 25 to 30 seconds. They also become less tired when exerting prolonged focus.

My own impression of the training is that these time frames seem to be close to optimal. They are not quite tough enough to be impossible, but really demand concerted effort. This concerted effort in turn produces impressive gains.

Martin

Thanks for commenting. I’m interested to know if you have found any correlation between time spans of focus/concentration and levels of acetylcholine and dopamine that are produced?

Are there optimum levels of either that help with things going into long-term memory?

What a fascinating site! Curiosity is also linked to attention. If we find something curious we can more easily focus on it. And focus in turn has been shown to be essential to brain change.

When we engage in a task that requires concerted focus, the nucleus basalis secretes acetylcholine – this is the trigger for the brain to “fix” the memories being formed. If we find the task rewarding the brain releases dopamine as well. Acetylcholine and dopamine together stimulate new neural growth and brain plasticity.

My company (Mind Sparke) uses these principles in a software-based training product – Brain Fitness Pro that was designed to increase intelligence but can also be helpful in many other areas, including stress reduction.

Martin Walker
http://www.mindsparke.com
Effective, Affordable Brain Training Software