10 simple ways to improve your mental abilities (10 photos)

Thinking - the basis of human life, with each person having a situation where he is not too pleased with his own cleverness.

When you need to learn a bunch of stuff for the exam or develop any major project, it would be desirable for a while to become a genius. Here are 10 ways to improve the higher cognitive functions of your brain.

1. Drink coffee


course, the constant lack of sleep and excessive consumption of coffee still no one came to help, but a short-term positive effects of caffeine reiterated recent studies coffee is not just increases the tone, it helps to focus on labor-consuming tasks and It improves virtually all indicators of intelligence, such as logical thinking or reaction time.

Scientists emphasize - do not think that caffeine makes you smarter, it just makes the brain work more efficiently "emergency" mode, but the constant overload necessarily haunt rapid fatigue in the future.

2. Allow yourself a little wine


Humanity has a long history of drinking to discover a lot of both positive and negative effects of alcohol. Recent experiments Norwegian scientists show that people who regularly drink wine (in moderation) on average evince better performance in tests of cognitive function than those who abstain from alcohol, this pattern most clearly manifested in women.

Most researchers have recently spoken about the beneficial effects of a small amount of wine on the thinking, coherence of speech, attention and other higher mental processes. It is believed that in the fermented grape juice contains antioxidants, anti-aging of the brain, so it was said to our ancestors, in vino veritas!

3. "charges" from the sun


Excess sunlight is harmful for the skin, but do not completely avoid sunlight - vitamin D is useful for the brain.
The researchers set up an experiment and found that fans of sunbathing coped better with the test jobs than volunteers with low levels of vitamin D.

As suggested by some researchers, vitamin D has the ability to slow the aging process of the brain, so if you're not a vampire, you can easily "recharged" sunlight. But remember, in all good measure, otherwise you run the risk of sunburn.

4. Let the thought "to spread»


To head works with maximum efficiency, you must be able to focus on a specific problem: the brain is most effective when busy with a single problem, unless of course you do not Julius Caesar.

But, as it turned out in the course of recent investigations, sometimes better really "let go" their thoughts and reflect on something distracted - so little "change" would then allow better task requiring the participation of memory and increase the overall performance of thinking. The constant focus on one or a few things slows information processing and "tired" of the brain.

5. After talking with yourself, you can find the "missing" house subject


When a person begins to talk to himself, many usually twist a finger at his temple, suspecting a problem with his head. After studying this phenomenon, the researchers came to the conclusion - thinking out loud really improve intelligence.

Participants in the experiment had to find an object, and the impact of their recorded remarks on the efficiency of the search. Volunteers say aloud the description of the search target, coped with the task faster than those who remained silent. Moreover, statements that are not related to the desired object, do not give expression to the effect, that is, it makes no sense to repeat out loud "refrigerator", if not find the house keys.

6. Dance


To avoid the onset of senility help active exercise and dance, say scientists.

When a person is dancing, his body and head work harmoniously: psychomotor movements require precise coordination, which increases attention and positive effect on spatial orientation. Decisions are taken too soon and, among other things, learning of new dance steps makes the process more flexible thinking.

Do you want to "pump" the brain? Enroll in a dance school, it is not only beautiful, but also useful.

7. Think about your diet


Often these or other foods presented as a universal magic bullet to improve intelligence. Do not believe: it is impossible to eat something for dinner and then to become a genius. But it should be remembered that the quality of the food has a large impact on the brain, and the whole body, so you can pick up a diet so as to reduce fatigue and optimize mental effort.

For successful operation of the head body needs glucose (found in many fruits), unsaturated fatty acid (abundant in fish), amino acids and antioxidants, which are present in the wine, as well as vitamin E, which can be found in nuts. Among other things, nutritionists advise to include in the diet of blueberries, avocado and more grains.

8. Play in the "Tetris»


Interesting results were obtained by scientists who studied the functioning of the human brain while playing "Tetris": short game sessions increases the number of gray matter, improved problem-solving skills on spatial thinking, as well as increased overall mental activity.

Another surprising feature of the famous computer game - smoothing trauma if under stress take some time folding colored blocks on the screen, negative impressions will soon forget.

Now an unexpected therapeutic effect interested doctors to apply this method to mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.

9. physical activity


There is a widespread belief that bodybuilders and athletes do not have high intellectual abilities, but as it turned out, this is not so.

Physical exercise, of course, do not raise the level of IQ, but improve circulation and improve overall tone that allows the brain to work more efficiently. Researchers have experimentally found that exercise about 10% improve cognitive skills in children and adults. At the same time it is not necessary to develop a complex set of exercises - to achieve a positive effect rather ordinary run.

10. Do not load up "to failure»


When it comes to long-term improvement in mental activity will give a carefully selected set of food, but when you need a momentary effect (eg, will take the exam), it is better to refrain from heavy meals.

Staff at the medical school at Yale University, conducted an experiment on mice, while it turned out that the rodents performed far better test tasks on higher cognitive functions, being hungry. The reason for this lies in the mechanism of natural selection - when the brain "feels" the hunger increases the intensity of his work to reduce the time foraging.

Therefore, if you will poraskinut brains, it does not have "to dump" - does not contribute to satiety agility of thought, but also to organize the hunger strike is not necessary: ​​it is important to find a middle ground.