Rice Business Report September 2019 September 2019 Rice Business Report | Page 17

Rice Business Report September 2019
Unlocking the Potential of Your Brain by Discovering How to Think!
By Madeline Frank
I realize you are saying to yourself, "I already know how to think".
In the next 2 minutes, you will discover one of the greatest strategies that has been practiced by the
greatest thinkers who have ever lived.
When I was a student at the Juilliard School, one of my professors would assign a book or article for
me to read each month. The professor would make a statement about the book and would ask me a
question causing me to think about it. I also had to submit a short summary of what I had just read. I
realized that his ultimate goal was to develop artists who were often great thinkers!
One of the people whom I was introduced to via these books was Dr. Gerald Edelman. Dr. Edelman
studied the violin as a child and contemplated a career as a concert violinist. He decided to pursue a
career in medicine and later won a Nobel Prize in 1972 for immunology work and in 1973 he began
studying the human brain. He continued to perform in a series of classical music concerts at his Neuro-
sciences Institute.
In Dr. Edelman's book (1992) "Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On Matters of the Mind", he said each of us has
a "Darwinian Brain" that evolves with the stimulation you give it! For example: A young child taking
violin lessons for 2 or more years will "develop and adapt strong neuronal connections enhancing their
brain function."
Professor Lincer also assigned "Awakenings" by Oliver Sacks, M.D., who wrote many books on his neu-
rological case histories of his patients. He was a Professor of Clinical Neurology at the Albert Einstein
College of Medicine. Dr. Sacks studied the piano as a boy and continued to play throughout his life.
He said "music has been the profoundest non-chemical medication for our patients. What we see, fun-
damentally, is the power of music to organize-and do this efficaciously as well as joyfully, when ab-
stract or schematic forms of organization fail.
Classical music has the power to organize the brain because of its complex rhythm.
Dr. Sacks had a patient suffering from severe Alzheimer's. The patient "responded to ballroom music
by taking his wife in his arms and looking into her eyes and dancing with her."
One of his patients had a stroke and could no longer walk or talk. Dr. Sacks brought in an accordionist
who played a familiar song, and the patient started to sing the song with him. Music has the power to
stimulate memory. "Memory says Dr. Sacks, is the key to a sense of self" and music evokes emotion
and emotion can bring its memory."
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