I like Michael Merzenich's stuff: Brain Fitness Program (no longer available as such) software, Brain HQ web site, Posit Science and its blog and site, "Soft-Wired" book. He has been instrumental in developing insight into brain re-wire-ability and applying that insight to genuine problems, such as focal dystonia, the loss of good body or limb control experienced by musicians and others. He introduced me to the idea of focal dystonia, over-training and the possibility of training one's self into a corner or a deadend, associated with high repetition of movements, as with musicians. It is important to give the body and mind a variety of tasks, not always the same thing.
His book ends with too many sets of lists, in my opinion, that seem like a list of Chinese exhortations to always be good and never be bad. The general idea is to give oneself challenges and alternative activities, such as using the computer mouse with the non-dominant hand or writing longhand with it. Another neuroscientist, Lawrence Katz and his co-writer, have invented the word "neurobics" to describe activities that consciously alter typical routines to require use of other parts of the body and brain, such as searching through a purse for one's keys without looking in the purse and doing other things with one's eyes closed. They state that smell is a major sense in the animal kingdom but that modern life virtually does without getting important information from the nose.
Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
