A quick question to Gwern Branwen

[Maciej]

What are scientifically proven ways to increase intelligence / cognition? (meditation?)

Do they exist? etc

[whoisbambam]

only Gwern can answer?

I do want to read what he has to type.......

but i am curious about all feedback on the matter......

i have opinions too.....but i wont post unless there is permission

[dumbothelephant]

A lot of people keep turning up asking the same basic question over and over again.

I would appreciate an authoritative stickied - "Brain Training - The Facts" post by someone knowledgeable about the scientific literature like gwern , and better still make it a stickied post in the group so the same query isn't asked over and over.

As for OP :-

* Proper sleep and meditation for a good state of mind.

* Exercise

* Piracetam 

* If you want to get better at something - Practice.

Yes , TL;DR - I've been investigating this for a while and I haven't been able to find any magic bullet. It's possible that there may be some cognitive intervention that really works but requires long gruelling practice. For eg: Most of the n-back studies have people playing n-back for half an hour a day at most for around two months, and then test their IQ. It's too much to expect that such a simple exercise could boost IQ significantly in such a short span of time . So while we can't rule it out , there is no magic bullet.

Gwern has written an article on why it may not be possible to improve "g" -

http://www.gwern.net/Drug%20heuristics

I assume his views haven't changed. In fact he's probably more certain about the above thesis.

[Heinstar]

As far as I know, these are the things that increase/maintain our intelligence according to our current scientific understanding. 

• adequate sleep
• nutritious diet
• aerobic exercise
• tDCS - the cognitive gains from tDCS session has been shown to last long-term. There's also CES which I'm not too sure about.
• EEG neurofeedback - supposed to help those who has cognitive deficiencies/abnormalities like ADHD. Unfortunately, the clinical neurofeedback sessions are currently unaffordable for most people. It’s possible to set up an EEG neurofeedback on your own(e.g. Q-wiz with TAG Sync) but it’s not easy, time consuming and may not work as well as clinical sessions.
• Brain Training Games - DNB, N-Back Variants?(my favourite are Triple(Color) Variable CNB and Variable QNB), CWM(NeuroNation has a nice CWM game) and maybe Project: EVO.
• mindfulness meditation - improves self-regulation and attention. I've heard that neurofeedback is more effective than meditation. I'm still not exactly sure how beneficial meditatinon is yet and I personally feel like it's a waste of time.
• nootropic - if you want to go the drug approach, there's smart drugs. It's up to you to assess the risk and reward of various noots. 

other things that affect our cognition which we mostly have no control over:

• inherit intelligent genes from your parents(70 - 80% of IQ comes from genetic)
• grow up in a safe, well-fed, low-stress, mentally stimulating environment(20 - 30% of IQ comes from the environment)
• avoid ingesting/breathing in toxic substances that negatively affect/damage your cognition(e.g. mercury in fish, air pollution, fluoride in water, lead, recreational drugs, some pharmaticeutical drugs etc.)
• avoid getting infections, injuries, syndromes, conditions, disorders or diseases that negatively affect/damage your cognition(e.g. sleep/mental disorder, concussion, MS, CFS etc.)

[jttoto2]

Some other possibilities beyond what Heinstar has pointed out:

-  Sunlight (preliminary but promising)
-  Avoidance of physical and mental illness.  It is well documented that some common diseases (cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease mental illness, etc.) have a deleterious effect on cognition, so investing in prevention is  a smart move.   It is important to note that some of the cognitive enhancers mentioned, such as exercise, sleep, and eating well, are closely related to physical health and disease prevention. 

[Brain Train]

@Heinstar- measuring the progress of meditation: there are neurofeedback devices (headset with a single electrode touching forehead) which you can use to record your brain wave (EEG). Software can analyze how long you remained in deep meditation and the depth of meditation.

Neurosky is one such device.

i tried it few times.. but i found it cumbersome to use. Moreover, once you get into somewhat regular practice, this feedback may not be that important to keep you going... if you remain consistent for a few months, you start seeing positive changes in your day to day experiences/behaviour. and once you get this firsthand, direct, positive feedback, you wouldn't need any other motivator to keep going on meditation.

The challenge is to remain consistent for about 3 months... even 10 minutes a day is enough, to experience positive changes.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Dual N-Back, Brain Training & Intelligence" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to brain-trainin...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to brain-t...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.