Don't forget to train your cortex!

Many, well let's face it all of the posts I have recently been writing deal with physical fitness training. However, I thought I would digress from that excursion to discuss Cortical training; i.e. brain training. This has actually become very popular lately with the advent of Nintendo's Brain Training DS game. But is this worth anything? Yes, actually, it could get you laid. (Yes we are back to the good old posts about how fitness gets you laid!)

A recent paper outlines how this works and I summarize here. OK, here goes. The English language (as just one example) has about 20,000 plus/minus words. The average human, however, only uses about 6,000-7,000 on average. In fact, only about 6,000-7,000 words are actually necessary in order to communicate with another human. So why so many words? And, how does your vocab get you laid?

Well we know that use of infrequent words and extended vocabulary is a good indicator of intellectual function (i.e. your general IQ). We also know that intellectual function is attractive to females; i.e. females prefer males with indicators of higher intelligence (e.g. educational status, lots of money, etc). Why, you might ask? Well, mating with a guy who has greater intelligence increases the probability that your offspring will inherit that greater intelligence. This serves two functions: 1) individuals with greater intelligence do better in life - they are better equipped to deal with the world, adapt, be flexible and generally attain greater social and economic statuses and 2) Individuals with greater intelligence are chosen as mates more often then individuals with lesser intelligence. It might be that, by choosing to mate with smart males, females may actually be manipulating future generations attractiveness and mate-ability (note the intellectual ability to combine and make new words... ;-)  This recent study, which was published in Evolutionary Psychology , shows that males actually employ use of lower frequency words (i.e. odd words that are not used in normal everyday language, or the words that make you sound smart!) when asked to imagine they were in a romantic situation with a picture of a young female. That is they spoke "smarter" when imaging that they were going to get lucky with the young chick. The same effect was not seen when the same males were asked to repeat the task imaging that they were in a romantic situation with an older female. Additionally, females actually decreased their use of low frequency (i.e. "smart" vocab) when asked to imagine a romantic situation with a younger male, but not with an older male. 

These findings, I think, support the idea of sex differences in behavior associated with parental certainty and the costs associated with reproduction. See, for males there are few costs. Essentially, the expenditure of sperm (say 15 minutes of fame!) For females the costs= bearing the result of impregnation. That is 10 months of gestation, child birth, rearing the offspring, oh and yes stretch marks (thanks Charlotte). So females put a premium on high quality males (i.e. intelligent males, males who use "smart" words) because they have a lot to lose. Mating with a loser, aside from the fact that you just banged a loser, may actually have longer term, potentially devastating effects - you might give birth to a loser! Then what you have is a new loser to enter teh reproductive workforce and in good conscious, could you really do that? :-)

Some food for thought? While running on the treadmill, tossing your kettle ball, or holding that handstand, don't forget to train your brain. You can do this easily by subscribing to a word-a-day feature in your email. Then while running make up as many sentences as you can using that new word. Use it in all its differing forms - noun, verb, adjective, and get creative. Try to describe your workout buddy using that term. Or trry to describe events happening at the gym using the word. It could be amusing. For example, my most recent word:



isthmus (noun): 1. A narrow strip of land with water on each side, joining two larger land masses, for example, the Isthmus of Panama. 2. A narrow strip of tissue joining two large organs or cavities.  



OK this one is kind of hard to use, however, not impossible. For example, in my new gym there is an isthmus (granted no bodies of water) connecting the ab/stretch region to the water fountain, that allows people to literally sturt their stuff in front of everyone using the cardio machines. Another example: Last tuesday at the gym, during TaiChi class, I notice that one of the older ladies had an isthmus of clothing covering her privates, ew! 



You can also keep your brain alert by counting backwards by 7, 11, 13, 3, 4, 5 etc from 100 or up the ante and start at 1000. Make it really hard and start at some god awful number like 13, 486! Changing the number and the pattern each time will help keep your brain working hard.  You can also sign-up for one of the several websites that aim to reproduce the Nintendo DS brain training rage.  Anyhow you do it, don't forget to use it, else you might lose it. And I don't mean lose your brain - chances are without neurosurgery you will always have a brain, rather I mean lose the mating race, the attractiveness game, and your potential reproductive prowess! Eeeeeeeck! (My poor wife!)

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