practice years
practice years
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Jan 13. [Epub ahead of print]
Neural correlates in exceptional mental arithmetic - About the neural architecture of prodigious skills.
Fehr T, Weber J, Willmes K, Herrmann M.
Center for Cognitive Sciences (ZKW), Dept. of Neuropsychology/Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Germany; Dept. of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Advanced Imaging (CAI)-Bremen, University of Bremen, Germany.
Prodigies are individuals with exceptional mental abilities. How is it possible that some of these people mentally calculate exponentiations with high accuracy and speed? We examined CP, a mental calculation prodigy, and a control group of 11 normal calculators for moderate mental arithmetic tasks. CP has additionally been tested for exceptionally difficult exponentiations. We hypothesized that, if CP would activate similar brain regions as controls for both moderate and very difficult tasks, his special exceptional abilities could rather be explained by neuroplastic changes as a result of obsessive practice than by unusual mental strategies and/or neurocognitive mechanisms. For very difficult exponentiation tasks, CP showed activation patterns in brain regions adjacent to those, which were activated for moderate task calculation by both CP and control participants. We concluded, therefore, that CPs exceptional calculation performance might rather be based on neuroplastic changes substantially caused by years of daily hours of training combined with excellent working memory capabilities and not on the recruitment of additional brain mechanisms. Furthermore, but considering that only one prodigy was compared with a control group, results of the present study imply that the neural substrate, which is potentially necessary to enhance specific skills dramatically by positively motivated excessive mental training, might be present in every healthy individual.
you are of unlimited potential
you limit your own potential.
Neural correlates in exceptional mental arithmetic - About the neural architecture of prodigious skills.
Fehr T, Weber J, Willmes K, Herrmann M.
Center for Cognitive Sciences (ZKW), Dept. of Neuropsychology/Behavioral Neurobiology, University of Bremen, Germany; Dept. of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Advanced Imaging (CAI)-Bremen, University of Bremen, Germany.
Prodigies are individuals with exceptional mental abilities. How is it possible that some of these people mentally calculate exponentiations with high accuracy and speed? We examined CP, a mental calculation prodigy, and a control group of 11 normal calculators for moderate mental arithmetic tasks. CP has additionally been tested for exceptionally difficult exponentiations. We hypothesized that, if CP would activate similar brain regions as controls for both moderate and very difficult tasks, his special exceptional abilities could rather be explained by neuroplastic changes as a result of obsessive practice than by unusual mental strategies and/or neurocognitive mechanisms. For very difficult exponentiation tasks, CP showed activation patterns in brain regions adjacent to those, which were activated for moderate task calculation by both CP and control participants. We concluded, therefore, that CPs exceptional calculation performance might rather be based on neuroplastic changes substantially caused by years of daily hours of training combined with excellent working memory capabilities and not on the recruitment of additional brain mechanisms. Furthermore, but considering that only one prodigy was compared with a control group, results of the present study imply that the neural substrate, which is potentially necessary to enhance specific skills dramatically by positively motivated excessive mental training, might be present in every healthy individual.
you are of unlimited potential
you limit your own potential.
medicalstudent | 8 months ago
Reply
Yes, CP is one of many insignificant prodigies who hasn't championed human understanding in any significant manner; and by every measure, this is a sign of "unlimited potential."
This kind of trash leads me to conclude that humanity is long on its way to a trough of one insignificant savantism after another without any relevant capability to advance our understanding.
Sigh... where are our universal men? Did they die with the improperly termed Renaissance?
/irony
This kind of trash leads me to conclude that humanity is long on its way to a trough of one insignificant savantism after another without any relevant capability to advance our understanding.
Sigh... where are our universal men? Did they die with the improperly termed Renaissance?
/irony
? | 8 months ago
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? | 8 months ago
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? | 8 months ago
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I'm not that smart.
I think that the tests here are simply ... ideally suited to my own particular form of high-speed idiocy.
/some terrible kind of ego trip
I think that the tests here are simply ... ideally suited to my own particular form of high-speed idiocy.
/some terrible kind of ego trip
cyberiad | 7 months ago
Reply
Ummmmmmmmmmm, what was I thinking?
...My only excuse is this: I took Alpha-GPC for the first time last night. Soon afterward I became very, very depressed. Eventually I was reduced to writing a few nonsensical posts on some forums (sorry guys). Luckily, the effects wore off within an hour or so.
Oh well.
...My only excuse is this: I took Alpha-GPC for the first time last night. Soon afterward I became very, very depressed. Eventually I was reduced to writing a few nonsensical posts on some forums (sorry guys). Luckily, the effects wore off within an hour or so.
Oh well.
cyberiad | 7 months ago
Reply
If you have some sort of condition, you are advised to speak with a knowledgeable clinician before thinking you're a guinea pig suited for such self-experimentation.
http://www.acnp.org/G4/GN401000095/CH.html
Regards,
?
http://www.acnp.org/G4/GN401000095/CH.html
Regards,
?
? | 7 months ago
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I don't know how it is, but whenever someone posts here, I'm soon to follow...
Anyway, don't take it so rough, cyberiad, we all have our talents or lack thereof to wrestle with; just know what you want and go for it! Having worthy ambitions is admirable, or so I'd like to think...
But the first ? (me? ;-) ) responding to studentmedical seems to have a good point: Mentats will become the norm provided that 1) there is a niche for them in our global society, 2) there is/are (a) feedback loop(s) that ensure(s) their existence, and 3) humankind does what cockroaches do best: survive. At this rate, I think all three will be easily met.
Anyway, don't take it so rough, cyberiad, we all have our talents or lack thereof to wrestle with; just know what you want and go for it! Having worthy ambitions is admirable, or so I'd like to think...
But the first ? (me? ;-) ) responding to studentmedical seems to have a good point: Mentats will become the norm provided that 1) there is a niche for them in our global society, 2) there is/are (a) feedback loop(s) that ensure(s) their existence, and 3) humankind does what cockroaches do best: survive. At this rate, I think all three will be easily met.
? | 7 months ago
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