Limitless Brain Power Possible?

14 points by chriswesallen 15 years ago | 7 comments

I just watched the movie Limitless last night and I was surprised that it was actually pretty good but it got me thinking.

Are there any fixes for stimulating brain activity or things that can help you learn faster? I've been really into neuroplasticity for the past five years and personally know the experience of learning one thing and benefiting in other areas of life.

I tried some paracetam (nootropic) in college and it did help with writing papers so I'm wondering whats the current state of affairs with "Brain Hacking"

sdrinf 15 years ago |

I suspect you're searching in the wrong branch of the solution tree. Brains, you see, work in strangely similar ways to that of other muscles in your body. You can certainly get "quick fix" improvements, but over the long term, they will never, ever get anywhere close to organic incremental gains built under exercise, and regularly pushing your limits.

However, just like with body building, there are instruments for accelerating this growth:

-Lumosity (www.lumosity.com) is to brain building what a bench press is to muscle improvements. In a 30-minute daily session, your brain is exposed to 5 different games, each exercising general brain plasticity, and specific muscles (speed, flexibility, memory, whatever you think you could use). I'm using this for 2 months now straight, and their pricing is terribly, terribly off compared to the returns I'm getting.

-If Lumosity is for building the general hardware, Spaced repetition is the enabler for installing software for long-term instant recall. Supermemo, or other SR products can help; specific areas usually have their own SR solution already.

-Language: of all the disciplines I've sucked up so far, nothing has changed my mind, and worked on my brain more, than acquiring a new language (preferably from a conceptionally different linguistic branch -eg. I'm learning Japanese; Chinese could also prove to be profitable in the near future)

Hope this gets you started, and feel free to ask any questions (my e-mail's in my profile)

bartonfink 15 years ago |

I take 1500 mg aniracetam daily and find that it makes a notable difference in my cognition. I'm able to maintain a train of thought without having to spend effort leaving mental "breadcrumbs" to retrace my steps.

I don't know if this is the state of the art, but it seems to work well for me. My brain works well enough that I don't see much benefit to tinkering with my own chemistry to eke out a few more cycles. My biggest obstacle is that some malicious trick of evolution forces my body to lie dormant for roughly a third of every day instead of actually doing stuff.

oregonspanish 15 years ago |

Try imminst.org forums for the latest on brain hacking--they're the go-to experts on this kind of stuff. Tim Ferriss (4hww) seems to pick up many of his brain hacks there too.

Jarred 15 years ago |

This might not be the best solution for everyone but for me it works, and I only recommended this if you have (and been tested for) ADD/ADHD and have no heart disease(s), as it will increase your chance of getting a heart disease

I take Adderall as prescribed by my doctor and it slightly improves my cognitive ability but much more substantially, it enables me to focus. And I focus seemingly more so than other people normally do while on Adderall. I take 10mg of Adderall XR (Time Release in 3 doses). There is a significant period about 8 hours later wherein one will feel fatigued and their brain will feel like mush (Or that's at least how I describe it).

Maybe you should try focusing more and not worrying as much about cognitive ability. I find that if you're excited and focused on something it's crazy what you can come up with.

curt 15 years ago |

If you're going to be messing around with your brain chemistry please do be careful. You can really screw things up if you take something that blocks a key receptor. Be sure to find the minimum effective dosage.

You're not really 'increasing your brains activity', your increasing the plasticity (though you can increase efficiency as well). One common myth I hate hearing is that humans only use x percentage of our brains. We use 100%, otherwise the body would break it down just like any other inactive tissue. Brain tissue has a huge metabolic toll on the body, you're not going to waste resources on something that's not being used.

danneu 15 years ago |

Nothin' like a good, low, daily dose of amphetamine to keep you focused on your ambitions.

sajithw 15 years ago |

Meditation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation