Introduction

Go ahead and multiply the number 8,388,628 2 in your head. Can you do it in a few

seconds? There is a young man who can double that number 24 times in the space a few

seconds. He gets it right every time. There is a boy who can tell you the precise time of day at

any moment, even in his sleep. There is a girl who can correctly determine the exact

dimensions of an object 20 feet away. There is a child who at age 6 drew such vivid and

complex pictures, some people ranked her version of a galloping horse over one drawn some

people ranked her version of a galloping horse over one drawn by da Vinci.

Yet none of these children have an IQ greater than 70. The brain is an amazing thing.

Your brain may not be nearly so odd, but it is no less extraordinary. Easily the most

sophisticated information-transfer system on Earth, your brain is fully capable of taking the

little black squiggles in this book and deriving meaning from them. To accomplish this

miracle, your brain sends jolts of electricity crackling through hundreds of miles of wires

composed of brain cells so small that thousands of them could fit into the period at the end of

this sentence.
Brain Rules #1: Exercise Boosts Brain Power.

The human brain evolved under situations of almost endless motion. From this, one might

expect that the best environment for processing information would include motion. That is

correctly what one finds. Indeed, the best business meeting would have everyone walking at

about 1.8 miles per hour. Researchers studied two elderly populations that had led different

lifestyles, one inactive and one active. Cognitive scores were deeply influenced. Exercise

positively affected decision-making function, spatial tasks, response times and quantitative

skills.

So researchers asked: If the inactive populations become active, will their cognitive

scores go up? Yes, it turns out, if the exercise is aerobic. In four months, decision-making

functions massively improve; longer, and memory scores improve as well. Exercise improves

cognition for two reasons which is, exercise increases oxygen flow into the brain, which

decreases brain-bound free radicals. One of the most interesting findings of the past few

decades is that an increase in oxygen is always attended by an uptick in rational sharpness.

Exercise also turns directly on the molecular machinery of the brain itself. It increases

neurons creation, survival, and resistance to destruction and stress. You complete all of this

in less time than it takes you to wink. Indeed, you have just done it. Whats equally

incredible, given our close association with it, is this: Most of us have no idea how our brain

works(Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules (PP.17-36). Seattle: Pear Press).

Brain Rules #2: Sleep well, think well.

When were asleep, the brain is not resting at all. It is almost incredibly active! Its possible

that the reason we need to sleep is so that we can learn. Sleep must be significant because we

spend 1/3 of our lives doing it! Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive function, working
memory, mood, quantitative skills, logical reasoning, and even motor dexterity. We still dont

know how much we need! It changes with age, gender, pregnancy, sexual maturity, and so

much more.

Napping is normal. Ever feel tired in the afternoon? Thats because your brain really

wants to take a nap. There's a battle furious in your head between two armies. Each army is

made of masses of brain cells and biochemical - one desperately trying to keep you awake,

the other badly trying to force you to sleep. Around 3 p.m., 12 hours after the midpoint of

your sleep, all your brain wants to do is nap. Taking a nap might make you more productive.

In one study, a 26-minute nap improved NASA pilots performance by 34 percent. Dont

schedule important meetings at 3 p.m. It just doesnt make sense(Medina, J. (2014). Brain

Rules (PP.37-56). Seattle: Pear Press).

Brain Rules #3: Stressed Brains Don't Learn the Same Way.

Your brain is built to deal with stress that lasts about 30 seconds. The brain is not designed

for long term stress when you feel like you have no control. The sabre-toothed tiger ate you

or you ran away but it was all over in less than a minute. If you have a bad boss, the sabre-

toothed tiger can be at your door for years, and you begin to deregulate. If you are in a bad

marriage, the sabre-toothed tiger can be in your bed for years, and the same thing arises. You

can actually watch the brain shrink.

Stress damages virtually every kind of cognition that exists. It damages memory and

executive function. It can hurt your motor skills. When you are stressed out over a long

period of time it disrupts your immune response. You get sicker more often. It disrupts your

ability to sleep. You get depressed. The emotional stability of the home is the single greatest
predictor of academic success. If you want your kid to get into Harvard, go home and love

your spouse.

You have one brain. The same brain you have at home is the same brain you have at

work or school. The stress you are experiencing at home will affect your performance at

work, and vice versa(Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules (PP.57-82). Seattle: Pear Press).

Brain Rules #4: Vision Trumps All Other Senses.

We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later

you'll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you'll remember 65%. Pictures beat text as

well, in part because reading is so inefficient for us. Our brain sees words as lots of tiny

pictures, and we have to identify certain features in the letters to be able to read them. That

takes time.

Why is vision such a big deal to us? Perhaps because it's how we've always

apprehended major threats, food supplies and reproductive opportunity. Toss your

PowerPoint presentations. Its text-based (nearly 40 words per slide), with six hierarchical

levels of chapters and subheadsall words. Professionals everywhere need to know about

the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images.

Burn your current PowerPoint presentations and make new ones(Medina, J. (2014). Brain

Rules (PP.181-198). Seattle: Pear Press).

Brain Rules #5: Music

To increase his creativity and his ability to come up with mathematical solutions to physics

problems, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Albert Einstein played the violin. What does music

have to do with math? Much more than we think, the experts tell us.
 Scientists at the University of California studied two groups of three-year-old

children. Half of group the attended piano or singing lessons for eight months, while the other

half not. After eight months, the scores on puzzles taken by the musical kids were 80% higher

than the scores of the kids who did not take music lessons. As the school year progressed, the

kids who took music lessons continued improving their mathematical abilities faster than the

kids who did not play music.

Scientists think that the reason for this is that, from the brain's point of view, music is

similar to math. Music consists of a series of specific notes that have to be played in a

particular order for the song to sound right. Math consists of a series of specific operations

(sums, subtractions, multiplications, divisions, and others) that also have to be done in a

particular order to get the answer right. Music and math are organized or structured ways of

thinking that use the same circuits in the brain. These circuits seem to be located over regions

of the cortex.

Learning to play a musical instrument during early childhood and regular practice

help the brain to develop the neural circuits that are also used when it is solving mathematical

problems or three-dimensional puzzles. Regular music practice reinforces these circuits,

making it easier for the growing child not only to play the instrument but also to solve

complex math and engineering problems, which use the same brain circuits

Brain Rules #6: Male and Female Brains Are Different.

Whats different? Mental health professionals have known for years about sex-based

differences in the type and severity of psychiatric disorders. Males are more severely afflicted

by schizophrenia than females. By more than 2 to 1, women are more likely to get depressed

than men, a figure that shows up just after puberty and remains stable for the next 50 years.
Males exhibit more antisocial behaviour. Females have more anxiety. Most alcoholics and

drug addicts are male. Most anorexics are female.

Men and women handle acute stress differently. When researcher Larry Cahill showed

them slasher films, men fired up the amygdale in their brains right hemisphere, which is

responsible for the gist of an event. Their left was comparatively silent. Women lit up their

left amygdale, the one responsible for details. Having a team that simultaneously understood

the gist and details of a given stressful situation helped us conquer the world.

Men and women process certain emotions differently. Emotions are useful. They

make the brain pay attention. These differences are a product of complex interactions

between nature and nurture(Medina, J. (2014). Brain Rules (PP.223-242). Seattle: Pear Press).