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• Dr.Harsha Doddihal

Hacking The Brain

Sleep, Exercise & Learning

Inspired Heavily from Nathaniel T Schutta

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Objective

• Learning more about brain!

• Why learn about brain? Fun & Profit

• Can we understand self by understanding the brain?

• Can we perform better if we know how our brain functions?

• What can help/aid our brain performance?

• How do we focus better?

• Are we rational?

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Road Map

• Sleep

• Exercise

• Learning

• Managing Information

• Distractions

• Predictably irrational

• External Brain

• Road Blocks

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Why Do We Sleep?

• Sleep allows body to repair cells damaged by free radicals

• Sleep helps replenish fuel. Adenosine puts us to sleep. ATP generation!

• Sleep-Housekeeping, pruning of synapses

• Reinforcing memory and learning

• We really don’t know

Sleep deprivation: You make more errors, attention failure

http://www2.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/blumberg/Course_Docs/Seminar.2008/Rea

dings/Stickgold.Nature.2005.pdf

http://sleep.boomja.com/index.php?ITEM=60866

Blood pressure rises

Trouble metabolizing glucose

Immune system depressed

Body temp drops

30% loss in cognitive skill-skip a night

Contributes to obesity

Feel hungrier

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Circardian Rhythm

• Melatonin

• Jet lag

• Genes get turned on in 8, 12, 24 hour cycle

• Clock genes!

• Treating depression with bright light in the morning

• Treatment of cancer

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70%<8 hours

40%<7 hours Take a nap,

40-60% take naps

26 minutes=34% improvement

At 3 pm brain wants to nap!

Most people do not realize they are sleep deprived!!

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Exercise & Plasticity

• We have evolved by walking- walking a lot ≈ 12 miles!

• Brain loves glucose 2% mass consumes 20% energy

• Generates lot of waste!

• Physical & Mental

• Exercise improves blood flow

• Flushes free radicals

• Paves new pathways

• Stimulates Brain Derived Neurotrophic factor

• Improves brain function

• Exercisers significantly outperform

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/20/130520fa_fact_orlean

http://www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Spaced_Learning-

downloadable_1.pdf

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Learning

• Illiterate of the 21st century is not a person who cannot read or write but the

one who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn!

• How do we ensure a brain which is capable of life long learning?

• Elaborate, meaningful context

• Stories, examples

• Spaced repetition, spaced education

• 10,000 hours of practice, approximately 7 years

So, you die only once but you can live many lives!!

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Thank You

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