Training for Brain Health, Resilience & Performance
Build focus, clarity and flexibility under stress
Hello ,
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In this e-mail I want to talk both about information entropy and about the recent cog neuro research conducted in Florida Atlantic University using my gFOCUS app.
A Time of High Information Entropy
Collectively we are experiencing a period of high information entropy. This is a measure of the amount of surprise/unexpectedness or uncertainty inherent in possible outcomes that we are trying to make sense of cognitively - in terms of our mental models, understanding, and control.
Sources of this information entropy (also called 'free energy') may include any of the following:
- The Covid pandemic - its effects and evolution and how to understand it as a risk
- Possible vaccines - their effectiveness, access, and safety
- Diverse media reports and public perceptions of the Covid pandemic
- Ever-changing government directives and responses to the Covid pandemic
- The wider society-wide impacts of the pandemic including:
- Economic downturn and associated uncertainties and pressures
- Changing work practices
- Changing lifestyle practices
- Political conflicts or uncertainties, related to issues of
- Uncertain outcomes (e.g. US elections, Brexit, international relations)
- Social-political divisions domestically
And taking a wider view, there are increasingly important issues related to changing population demographics, the global fast-changing economy and being secure and competitive/cooperative within it, the increasing impact of the internet and social media, challenges relating to the sustainability of the environment and resources for future generations, and the threat
of non-friendly states, terrorism and rogue state action.
That's a lot of extra information entropy for anyone to try to assimilate and process!
The job of fluid intelligence (Gf) is to reduce information entropy (free energy F).
That's how we can define Gf in fact.
It does this F-reduction through problem solving, comprehending, learning and attaining goals through personal control. The higher our intelligence (G), the more efficient we are over the long-term of reducing entropy/free energy while remaining open and adaptive to changing conditions and opportunities.
Exercising our fluid intelligence to solve cognitive challenges and reduce uncertainty in a sustainable way, requires focus and is energy consuming. Metabolically in the brain - it is a process with high energy demands - literally, in terms of glucose metabolism and ATP breakdown.
This process has global benefits for the brain and cognition when it remains within a certain tolerance zone based on a principle called hormesis.
Hormesis is any a process in an organism that exhibits a biphasic response to exposure to increasing amounts of a stressor, where there is a favorable (health, resilience and performance enhancing) response to a lower exposure of the stressor but a damaging response at higher levels of exposure.
Information entropy is just such a stressor. We want information-processing challenges that are in the tolerance zone and beneficial to our cognitive health and performance. We don't want to be overwhelmed by information challenges and uncertainty, because this can result in damaging brain inflammation. In cognitive terms, overwhelming high-stress information
entropy is associated with brain-fog, burn-out, anxiety, depression and addiction.
The Information Entropy Spectrum
In the figure here, the colour-spectrum codes the level of information entropy (free energy). The green zone maps to the light blue brain states which are low-energy and easy to access. These are your crystallized intelligence (Gc) states, and include all your well-learned mental models and skills. The orange hormesis zone maps to the orange brain states that are high energy
and hard to access. These are fluid intelligence (Gf)-demanding states. The red inflammation zone maps to the purple brain states that are damaging, associated with cognitive impairment and mental health issues.
Your Information Entropy Challenge Today
So how can you expand your capacity to be in the more optimal zone for utilizing your fluid intelligence - effective information processing while staying focused, sharp and flexible under stress and potentially overwhelming stress and uncertainty?
What strategies can you adopt to help?
Here are 3 solid evidence-based strategies that you can consider.
Strategy 1: Incorporate exercise into your weekly routine
There is evidence that exercise is beneficial in promoting your executive functioning, cognitive resilience and stress-tolerance – all critical to expanding your tolerance zone for information entropy to support your general intelligence (G). Evidence for this is found here: (1), (2), (3).
You can do light-moderate aerobic exercise or high intensity interval training (HIIT) - combining aspects of aerobic, anaerobic and resistance training. Here is a simple but effective 7-minute HIIT routine, developed and tested scientifically and published in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal (4, 5). 3-5 times a week is ideal.
Strategy 2: Nondirective Meditation / Yoga Nidra
Nondirective meditations includes Acem Meditation, Clinically Standardized Meditation, Transcendental Meditation and yoga nidra.
Yoga nidra may be the most accessible of these. Yoga nidra works by gently guiding into an increasingly relaxed state (activating the relaxation response) with the goal being a hypnagogic state. This state is like the period before you fall asleep when the body rests while the mind is still lucid, and mental activity is spontaneous and fluid.
Yoga nidra has been shown to help with coping with stress, and via the relaxation response. Research has shown that yoga nidra practice can lower heart rates, blood pressure and oxygen consumption, and they alleviate the symptoms associated with many inflammation related disorders including hypertension, arthritis, insomnia, depression, infertility, cancer, and anxiety. (6)
Yoga nidra selectively activates the default mode (crystallized intelligence/Gc) network, and helps with memory consolidation - a critical function of your crystallized intelligence - your easily accessed knowledge and skill sets (7, 8).
Strategy 3: gFOCUS App Training
Regular training with my gFOCUS app - in resilience mode This easy-to-do training exercise requires sustained focus while inhibiting irrelevant information. It trains your ability to do this at will.
This kind of training not only improves sustained attention focus on tasks, but can reduce the brain’s emotional reactivity – that is, help us self-regulate in the face of threatening stress cues. Emotional reactivity results when emotionally charged information grabs attention and slows down higher order cognitive functioning such as decision-making.
Emotional reactivity is known to be heightened in individuals suffering from stress-related emotional dysregulation such as depression or anxiety (9).
Screenshots of this cognitive training game are shown here.
Earlier in 2020, a grad student at Florida Atlantic University, completed his PhD thesis in a study using my gFOCUS app. He was interested in the effectiveness of brain training apps to reduce depression and anxiety in adolescents, complementing existing studies on other age groups.
Nathaniel (the researcher) reported to me after the study was complete:
The results were encouraging; gFocus training resulted in reductions in anxiety and depression as well as inhibitory control performance improvements relative to the waitlist control. In the resilience condition (emotional version) there was a trend towards reduced frontal alpha asymmetry suggesting that the training influenced a key neurophysiological correlate of mood disorders in
adolescents.
The thesis - expected to be submitted for publication - concludes:
"Overall, the emotional and neutral training conditions showed similar reductions in anxiety and depression compared to the waitlist condition... a lateral frontal leftward activity shift was found in the resilience mode training group. These findings further demonstrated a relationship between interference control (IC) and anxiety and showed preliminary evidence that this
training has the potential to mitigate negative emotional functioning".
Strategy Synergy: Exercise >> gFOCUS training
There is evidence that workouts prior to cognitive training enhances both performance during training, and the general benefits gained from training, with researchers concluding: “our findings suggest that the addition of antecedent physical exercise to brain training regimen could enable wider, more robust improvements.” (10, 11)
So an extra-effective synergy training involves doing a workout, having a rest period to allow your heart rate to return to normal.
The training rationale is the following:
If you do 3-5 of these sessions each week, for a period of 5-6 weeks, you will induce long-term neuroplasticity effects that will noticeably augment your fluid intelligence by increasing your information entropy tolerance.
gFOCUS Offer
As an IQ Mindware subscriber you can purchase gFOCUS at the discounted price of $15.00 by clicking here or the button below. This is a limited time offer.
If you would prefer credit card to PayPal, you can use this link.
If you do not see clear cognitive benefits within 4 weeks, e-mail me and I will reimburse you.
(If you are already a gFOCUS user, consider setting aside a few weeks to incorporate these three practices into your weekly routine if you are looking for another training program challenge.)
If you want any cognitive coaching, be sure to get in touch via the coaching link on the IQ Mindware website.
Mark
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Mark Ashton Smith, Ph.D.
If you want to book a 1 hour coaching session with Dr Mark Ashton Smith for professional brain training advise or customized cognitive training programs, do so at this link.
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