MODERN THINKING
neuropsychiatric conditions.
If your workplace doesn’t match
these, your hard earned training
budget dollars can still be spent in a
useful way if
a) There is a specific thinking
bottleneck that needs addressing
such as increasing mental
processing speed or focus.
with a little video gaming each week
have been shown to make up to 37%
fewer errors and enjoy a 27% faster
completion rate in surgery. Is this
the new criteria by which to choose
our laparoscopic surgeon?
b) It provides a structured program
that is user friendly, has clearly
tangible benefits for the participant
and monitors progress.
Unfortunately it is the action video
games (which can be pretty gory)
that provide the most benefit.
They contrast to some of the
brain training programs that can
sometimes only be described as
mind numbingly boring - unless you
find following bubbles or numbers
floating around the screen riveting.
What about playing
some videogames
instead?
Introducing the three
musketeers of high
performance.
With 1.23 billion people around
the planet playing videogames for
an hour each day these are clearly
popular, although the benefit of
those 1.73 billion minutes spent
playing Candy Crush could be
disputed.
Video games are great to develop a
faster speed of mental processing
and peripheral awareness skills.
They are fun and rewarding causing
our brain to release more dopamine,
which motivates our desire to
continue to play (sometimes a bit
too much).
Laparoscopic surgeons who relax
if it is a skillset we don’t expect to
be good at because this makes our
brain work harder and drives our
neuroplasticity.
For those of us who are healthy,
working hard and looking to
improve our mental performance,
what works is to use the far less
sexy though effective means of
stretching our mental muscle
though improving our brain health
and engagement with our world. If
you enjoy the current brain training
games available that’s fine just
don’t expect too much more than
improving at the games you play.
1. Physical activity.
Hooray! The Lycra shorts still get
a look in. Exercise, movement
or anything that gets us off our
bottom, primes our brain for better
attention, mood and thinking.
2. Human connection.
Effective communication, learning,
trust and collaboration work so
much better face-to-face.
3. Brain challenge.
Elevate your cognitive finesse by
learning a second language, playing
a musical instrument or writing a
poem! This works especially well
Dr. Jenny Brockis is a medical
practitioner who specialises in the
science of high performance thinking.
Her book Future Brain: The 12 Keys to
Create a High Performance Brain (Wiley)
is available at all good bookstores and at
www.drjennybrockis.com
January 2016
ModernBusiness
15