Well, its been awhile since I started a war on the board so I thought it was about time to throw out a challenge.
As you all know I'm a school psychologist. One of my doctoral minors was in neuropsychology so naturally I am interested in recent research in the feild of neuropsychology and learning. I have just been reading some research that is very interesting and could have implications for, well just about everything we want to learn.
I have been reading about how 'plastic' the brain is. That is, how the brain can 're wire' its self when stimulated in a certain way. The research is showing that with extended sensory stimulation, the area of the cortex where the sensory stimulation was being 'recorded or recognized' grew larger. (okay, no cheeze jokes here). Some other researchers began asking if the mind could change the brain... in other word can thinking change the brain?
So, this group of scientists came up with some research. One group of volunteers practiced a five-finger piano exercise, and a comparable group merely though about practicing it. The second group focused on each finger movement in turn, essentially playing the simple piece in their heads, one note at a time. As expected, the actual physical practice produced changes in each volunteer's motor cortex. BUT, so did mere mental rehersal. AND the change was as big as the physical practice. (I want to say here, that I haven't actually read this study, just a summary of it. I plan to look it up and read it though.)
Wow, what implications if this finding can be replicated. I use visualization techniques on a regular basis. That is, I watch my coach and other swimmers and visualize myself doing the same thing. I do think it helps and maybe what I have been doing and not realizing it is 're wiring' my brain. Do any of you use visualization, what do you think, does it help or not?
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Shortly after the initial post the other psychologist with whom I work came into my office. We started discussing neuroplasticity and she related a story she had read somewhere along time ago. She thinks it was in one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books...
A man was taken prisioner in Viet Nam. Every day he was in capitivity he played golf in his mind. He played it in 'real time'... meaning his visualization was real enough that it took him as long to visualize the game as it would actually take him to play the round in real life. He changed, weather conditions, golf courses, his strokes etc. When he was released, returned to the states, and played golf again he had knocked several strokes off his game.
That is what I was meaning. Do you think visualization changes our brains? Can we, through the power of our minds, actually change our brain structure so that we improve our strokes?
How about this? A swimmer usually swims 4,000 meters during a regular workout. Now a big meet is coming up and he/she begins a taper. He/She drops down, to lets say, 2000 (to make the numbers easy) but visualizes the rest of the workout up to 4,000 (ie the 2,000 meters not swam). I wonder what effect (negative or positive) that would have on his/her performance.
Shortly after the initial post the other psychologist with whom I work came into my office. We started discussing neuroplasticity and she related a story she had read somewhere along time ago. She thinks it was in one of the Chicken Soup for the Soul books...
A man was taken prisioner in Viet Nam. Every day he was in capitivity he played golf in his mind. He played it in 'real time'... meaning his visualization was real enough that it took him as long to visualize the game as it would actually take him to play the round in real life. He changed, weather conditions, golf courses, his strokes etc. When he was released, returned to the states, and played golf again he had knocked several strokes off his game.
That is what I was meaning. Do you think visualization changes our brains? Can we, through the power of our minds, actually change our brain structure so that we improve our strokes?
How about this? A swimmer usually swims 4,000 meters during a regular workout. Now a big meet is coming up and he/she begins a taper. He/She drops down, to lets say, 2000 (to make the numbers easy) but visualizes the rest of the workout up to 4,000 (ie the 2,000 meters not swam). I wonder what effect (negative or positive) that would have on his/her performance.
