BRAIN RULES

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BRAIN RULES
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Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work,
Home, and Schoolby John Medina

• Debbie Crouch
• Kenda Gatlin
• Seattle Pacific University

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OUR ESTEEMED AUTHOR

• Dr. John Medina is a developmental molecular
  biologist and research consultant. He is an
  affiliate Professor of Bioengineering at the
  University of Washington School of Medicine. He
  is also the director of the Brain Center for
  Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific
  University.

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Todays Sampling of Brain Rules

• Exercise The secret to boosting brain power
• Attention We dont pay attention to boring
  things
• Sleep Sleep well, think well

• Stress Stressed brains dont learn the same way
• Gender Male and female brains are different
• Exploration We are powerful and natural explorers

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Survival in a Hostile Environment
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Three Brains in One

• Lizard brain
• Basic functions such as breathing, heartbeat,
  sleep
• Mammalian brain
• Animal survival the four Fs
• Fighting
• Feeding
• Fleeing
• Reproductive behavior
• Cortex or Human Brain
• Executive functions
• Specialized functions

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Our Blender Brain

• Y r d g ch s d th
  c t.

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The Secret

• Want to know how to . . .

• And also . . .

• Increase your
• Attention span
• Reasoning
• Long-term memory
• Problem-solving abilities
• ?

• Combat
• Anxiety
• Stress
• Depression
• Decrease your chance of
• Alzheimers by 60
• General dementia by 50
• ?

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EXERCISEExercise Boosts Brain Power

• Jack LaLanne The man who gave us the jumping
  jack.
• Strength of mind is directly related to strength
  of muscle.

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The Function of Exercise

• How much exercise is enough?
• 30 minutes of cardiovascular 2-3 times a week.

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Stretch Break!
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To the Tune ofTake Me Out to the Ballgame

• Take me out to the sidewalk.
• Take me out to the track.
• Buy me a treadmill and trampoline.
• Staying active will be my routine.
• I will build an oxygen highway,
• Then stressors wont be a drain.
• For just 30 minutes three times a week
• Makes a healthy brain!

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ATTENTIONWe Dont Pay Attention to Boring Things
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ATTENTION

• Messages that
• grab your attention are
• connected to
• Memory
• Interest
• Awareness

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ATTENTION

• Meaning before detail gist
• Familiarity and patterns
• IRSYMCAIBMKGBFBI
• Attention cant be maintained indefinitelythe
  brain needs a break to digest information.

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Attention and Advertising

• Threat of totalitarian society
• Sex appeal - Mac is a female
• Female empowering 1980s
• Pattern matching book/movie
• Emotional appeal (gist)

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Advice for Educators

• Capture attention by triggering emotion
• Convey general ideas before details
• Make sure examples are relevant
• Teach complex information and processes in small
  segments
• Repeat information at discrete intervals

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There is no better anti-brain environment
than the classroom and cubicle. John Medina
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Multi-tasking is a MythWe can only pay
attention to one thing at a time

• Comparison of cell phone users to drunk drivers
• 4X higher
• The increase in rates in collisions of drivers
  who use cell phones.
• 19 slower
• The amount of time slower cell phone users were
  to resume their normal speed after braking.
• 24 more variability
• The increase in the variation in following
  distance as a cell phone drivers attentional
  states shifted between driving and talking.

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SLEEPSleep Well, Think Well
BEWARE!
THE DREADED NAP ZONE!
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Sleep Chronotypes

• Larks
• Owls
• Hummingbirds

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Sleep on it

• The brain doesnt
• sleep to rest.
• Loss of sleep hurts attention, executive
  function, immediate memory, mood, quantitative
  skills, logical reasoning, general math knowledge
  and even motor dexterity.

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Effects of Sleep Deprivation
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STRESSStressed Brains Dont Learn the Same Way

• Three part definition of stress
• Must be an aroused physiological response to the
  stress, and it must be measurable by an outside
  party.
• The stressor must be perceived as aversive.
• The person must not feel in control of the
  stressor.

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Stress Health Alert!

• Chronic stress
• Dangerously deregulates a system built only to
  deal with short-term responses.
• Creates too much adrenaline, leading to high
  blood pressure, and elevating the risk for heart
  attack and stroke
• Ravages parts of the immune system involved in
  producing antibodies.

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Stress and Learning

• In almost every way it can be tested, chronic
  stress hurts our ability to learn.
• Specifically affected are the skills needed to
  excel in school and business.

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Enter the Hero to Battle Stress

• BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor)
• Keeps neurons alive and growing in the presence
  of hostile action
• However, BDNF can be overwhelmed

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Can work and home be kept separate?
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Disclaimer This information has NOT been
confirmed by scientists ?
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Gender differences a hot topic
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GENDERMale and Female Brains are Different

• Men are more severely afflicted by schizophrenia
• Women are twice as likely to get depressed
• Males exhibit more antisocial behavior
• Women have more anxiety
• Most alcoholics and drug addicts are men
• Most anorexics are women

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GENDERMale and Female Brains are Different

• Stress
• Men and women respond differently to acute
  stress.
• Men favor gist when stressed, women favor
  details.
• Emotions
• Emotions make the brain pay attention.
• Men and women process certain emotions
  differently.
• The differences are a product of complex
  interactions between nature and nurture.

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GENDERWords to the Wise

• Take care when discussing gender differences.
• Consider building work teams that involve both
  men and women, as different ways of experiencing
  and viewing things may lead to better decisions.

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EXPLORATIONWe are Powerful and Natural Explorers

• Babies model how we learn by actively testing
  through observation, hypothesis, experiment and
  conclusion
• What if . . . ?
• How could I . . . ?
• I wonder . . . ?

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Exploration Time

• 50 of new products came from 20 percent time.

• Google lets employees spend 20 of their time
  going where their minds ask them to go.

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C H A L L E N G EFind Ways to Be a Kid Again!!