HEALTH
BrainBooster
Words Farhan Shah
Photos Benjamin Lim
We spend a day in the
classrooms, spotting faces
and counting dots, because
our middle brains, just like
the muscles in our body,
need to be trained. It’s
actually loads of fun.
The four young children are staring
intently at the projected image on the
large screen, their juvenile brains
slowly creaking to find the clues, before
their hands inch their way up to the
sky, some with two fingers sticking
out, others with three. I inspected the
picture again, making sure that my
eyes weren’t deceiving me before also
extending three fingers out to indicate
the number three.
All five of us are in a small cosy
classroom – the children ranging in age
from four to nine while the premature
grey hair on my scalp betrayed my
advancing years – and we were looking
at one of those mind-altering pictures
that had multiple faces hiding within.
I was right. There were three faces – a
young lady, an old woman, and a man
with a funky handlebar moustache.
Li Xiaoru, the Singaporean instructor
running the show, verbally pokes and
prods the children, guiding them to
visually identify the different faces.
As the lesson goes on and as more
images are flashed onto the screen, the
children become incrementally better
at spotting the hidden patterns and
concealed shapes. Ashamedly, I fall
behind. My first face-spotting success
soon proves to be my only one while the
kids become better and better, laughing
and enjoying themselves at the same
time. Apparently, it’s not really my fault.
According to Xiaoru, the brains of young
children are still malleable, unlike
my fully formed grey matter, and are
therefore, more receptive to her training.
Xiaoru and her British co-founder,
Chris Hedger, are the brains
behind Mental Literacy Training, an
educational outfit that specialises
in training the middle brain. Using a
finely blended combination of pictures,
encouragement, flash cards and other
games, Xiao Ru and Chris aim to
enhance children’s memories, unlock
their imaginations, improve their
concentration and focus, and ultimately,
groom them to perform better in
schools. They do this by helping the
children to simultaneously activate both
sides of their brains while working on
a solution to a problem. This is done by
using the middle brain as a conduit of
sorts, a bridge that connects the right
and left sides.
Associated with vision, hearing,
motor control, alertness and
temperature regulation, the midbrain
or mesencephalon is an important
component in relaying visual and
auditory information to your eyes and
ears. Dopamine, a chemical released
by our nerve cells that plays a major
role in reward-motivated behaviour,
is also produced in the midbrain –
interestingly, a 2013 study conducted
by a group of scientists discovered that
mice that were selectively bred for high
voluntary wheel running had larger
midbrains, supporting a model of brain
evolution given the right conditions, and
an altered response to the produced
dopamine.
What does this mean for children?
To put it in layman’s terms, training
the midbrain also subtly alters your
children’s behaviour due to the
enhanced reaction they will have to
the natural dopamine produced in the
cells. They will most likely become
more motivated to complete certain
school- and home-related tasks and
will find more pleasure in studying and
learning. While it’s not the same across
the board, Xiaoru explains that more
children also become more sociable
and confident, two definitely welcome
characteristics in our school system.
Did I become more confident during the
time I spent in the classroom with the
four children? I definitely felt primed to
tackle the day ahead, perhaps due to
the enjoyment I derived from laughing
and thinking at the same time, as the
dopamine coursed through my body.
I could tell that the children too were
having loads of fun. And perhaps that’s
the most important thing – to tell
the youthful generation of the future
that learning can be fun and exciting,
without the need to compete and step
on their peers just to reach an ever
shifting benchmark.
For more information on the courses run by Mental Literacy Training, check
out www.mltsg.com, give Li Xiaoru or Chris Hedger a call at +65 9027 9902, or
email them at [email protected].
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Family & Life • Oct 2014