Exercise: A Time Traveler’s Question.

“If you could live as an adult in any historic period of any past century, which would you choose? What would you do for a living? Would you marry? What kind of person would you be?“

Exercise Goal: Imaginative thinking.

Brain Site Activation: Right hemisphere of the cortex. Inhibition of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine.

Exercise: Take a look at a few common life situations a person may face and want to resolve. To do so successfully, the person has to decide if the situations are symptoms of a problem or are problems themselves. Which of the following life situations do you consider are symptoms and which are problems?

The person is 40 years old and holds a book further away to see it clearly.
The person is 40 years old and gets tired more easily than they used to.
The person has two children and they spend less time with their spouse than they used to.
The person has two children and weighs 20 pounds more than before they became a parent.

Exercise Goal: Analytic Thinking and reasoning.

Brain Site Activation: Prefrontal cortex and limbic system.

Exercise: Look at the following picture. Can you see the figure-ground reversal?

Exercise Goal: Understanding visual stimuli.

Brain Site Activation: Temporal cortical regions, middle frontal gyrus, putamen, and midline cerebellum.

Exercise: Look at the following picture and then look away. What did you see? Recall people, actions, and objects.

Exercise Goal: Working visual memory.

Brain Site Activation: Temporal lobes.

Exercise: Hold an object like a pen in front of your eyes. Look at it. Then close your left eye. Then open your left eye and close your right eye. Notice how your perspective and acuity changes.

Clue: With one eyelid closed, there is no depth perception. This is true even though you know that the object you’re holding has depth.

Exercise Goal: Neurobic achievement.

Brain Site Activation: Cingulate system and neurotrophin production.

Exercise: Imagine you are standing at the center of the North Pole and you decide to take a walk, start walking. What direction are you going?

Exercise Goal: Imaginative problem solving; awareness of person and place.

Brain Site Activation: Left Prefrontal cortex and right cerebral hemisphere.

Exercise: Describe the taste of a hamburger and a salad with your favorite dressing.

Exercise Goal: Recall sensory information.

Brain Site Activation: Caudo lateral cortex and the limbic system.

Exercise: Imagine it is a year from now and you are thinking back on your best achievements in 2012. What plans will you need on January 1, to make these accomplishments happen?

Exercise Goal: Imaginative thinking and planning.

Brain Site Activation: Preferential right hippocampal engagement; and right cerebral hemisphere.

Exercise: Think of yourself as a child, describe what the holiday time means to you? (This question is not asking you to remember but to re-experience.)

Exercise Goal: Eidtic imagery.

Brain Site Activation: Limbic system and right hemisphere.

Exercise: Name six of the eight planets in our solar system. If you can’t name six, what is the fastest way for you to get the answer?

Bonus Exercise: Until 2006, Pluto was listed as one of our planets until a group of scientist kicked it off for being too small. How do you feel about that, do you think it was fair?

Exercise Goal: Long term memory plus humor.

Brain Site Activation: Frontal and Temporal lobes.