Mental Fitness:

Upping the Ante

 

In the third week of my mental fitness program,  kSero is homing in on my cognitive limitations... Orange elephants and green dinosaurs... A theta/alpha imbalance... a puzzling reaction to the RNA tablets... Correcting bad habits... 

 

by James A. Bacon

 

The orange elephants and green dinosaurs really TICKED me off. In a series of exercises designed to measure my short-term memory and mental processing speed, I flunked a test -- twice! -- that required me to match the color of cows, elephants and other animals with color on the border of the computer screen... Oh, I got all the answers right, but I was too slow. In the first test, I took 1.56 seconds to recognize the pattern and click a mouse button, just shy of the 1.5 seconds needed to pass. The second time, I was even slower. That really frosted me. I still can't believe I took so long. Stinkin' orange elephants!

 

But the computer doesn't lie. And it doesn't forget. The work station at the kSero Corporation office keeps a log of all my test results, so we can measure my improvement (or deterioration) in cognitive performance. Building an empirical database is a critical part of the kSero method.    While the technicians at the Richmond-based cognitive-

Read Part I in the "Mental Fitness" series. Read Part II in the "Mental Fitness" series. To find out more about the kSero Corporation Executive Program, contact Susan Hardwicke at (804) 360-5976, or visit the kSero website.

development company recommend all manner of dietary supplements and other lifestyle changes, they acknowledge that each individual is unique and that there is no one-size-fits-all formula. They modify their recommendations on the basis of quantifiable metrics.

 

I've been participating in kSero's Executive Program for fully two weeks now, modifying my daily diet, exercising more, improving my sleeping habits and taking a variety of supplements to improve brain function. It is axiomatic at kSero that the brain is an organ inseparable from the rest of the body. Just as poor nutrition, insufficient sleep and lack of exercise harm our physical performance, they also impair our mental performance.

 

I thought I was in pretty good cognitive condition when I enrolled, but I knew there was room for improvement. I sometimes run out of mental steam in the late afternoon, and I let a lot of details fall between the cracks. Working on my own as a writer, editor and newsletter publisher, I feel like a trapeze performer swinging without a safety net. All it takes is one small oversight, and -- crash! -- I find my face buried in the circus tent sawdust.

 

My instinct was to blame my slip-ups on a poor short-term memory. But after some PC tests during my first visit, kSero President Susan Hardwicke quickly disabused me of that notion. To the contrary, my short-term memory was significantly better than normal. However, the tests did pick up on a relatively slow mental processing speed. That could contribute to my work-performance issues, Hardwicke suggested, but more data was needed.

 

In my second session, I underwent an EEG scan of the electrical impulses from my brain. The initial prognosis of Andy Wallace, kSero's neuro-feedback specialist and assistant director, was very favorable: The ratio of Alpha, Beta, Theta and Delta waves suggested that I had excellent powers of concentration. But come back next week, he said, and he'd provide a more detailed analysis.

 

This morning, I returned to kSero for my third session and an explication of my EEG readings. When it's someone else's brain that's being analyzed, all this EEG jargon can sound remote and abstract. But let me tell you, when Wallace is talking about your brain, the topic is endlessly fascinating.

 

Overall, said Wallace, the EEG indicated that I have an exceptionally healthy balance between Theta waves (associated with drowsiness and daydreaming) and Beta waves (associated with focus and alertness). Indeed, if you'll permit a bit of braggadocio, my ability to focus borders on the remarkable -- a characteristic that Hardwicke attributes to my many years of writing, a discipline that requires intense concentration over long periods of time.

 

However, probing deeper into the data, Wallace spotted some signs warranting further investigation. The Theta/Beta ratio was less than ideal, suggesting a propensity for "racing thoughts, poor stress tolerance or anxiety." That rang true. I can get flustered when a half dozen different things hit me at once. I'm not exactly Mr. Calm Under Fire.

 

Another area worth probing is my Theta/Alpha ratio. It wasn't severely out of whack, Wallace said, but it did indicate possible trouble with "organization, sequencing and sustained focus." That, too, struck home. The phenomenon I call "letting things fall between the cracks" may be a sign of inattentiveness when my laser-like attention ("laser-like" is my description, not Wallace's) is not focused on something specific.

 

After the EEG review, it was time for an experiment. Hardwicke is a great believer in the properties of RNA, or Ribonucleic Acid. Lab research, she said, shows that this supplement extracted from brewer's yeast can improve the synaptic transmission between the neuron receptors of brain cells. In the proper proportions, RNA can contribute to faster mental processing speed and superior organizational skills.

 

Hardwicke loaded me with 100 mg of RNA, which I washed down with a nutrient bar and a glass of water. I mentioned that the nutrient bar was the first thing I'd had to eat today -- I'm normally dogmatic about having breakfast, but a 7:30 a.m. appointment disrupted my schedule. That prompted a question: "Aren't you hungry?"

 

"A little. But not much."

 

"You should be."

 

(We'll get back to the significance of that exchange in a moment.)

 

Wallace hooked me up to the EEG monitor again and, once the RNA had time to enter the bloodstream, told me to shut my eyes as he measured the response.

 

Anti-climax. My brain waves didn't budge. I took another RNA tablet, and he cranked up the machine again. This time as I sat with closed eyes, I heard a huddled muttering between Wallace, Hardwicke and Kristen Baker, another kSero employee, as the brain waves shifted shape on the monitor. What did it all mean?

 

Hard to say. The RNA did reduce the level of Theta waves -- which Hardwicke refers to jokingly as the "duh" frequency -- on one of the four spots of my head being measured. But the Beta waves did not respond as they do for most people. Apparently, my cognitive processes remain a puzzle. "Everyone's profile is unique," Hardwicke assures me. "Everybody has a different biochemistry."

 

After the EEG scan, kSero sat me behind a PC to take a battery of memory and processing-speed tests. I scored spectacularly well on a number of the tests but badly flubbed one, which, sad to say, I could not figure out what I was supposed to do. I was hitting the computer mouse like the proverbial monkey on a typewriter. (Hint to Hardwicke: Another avenue to pursue is to find out why Bacon is so bad at following instructions!)

 

I breezed past exercises labeled "Cat's Play" and "Mouse Hunt," then ran into the game with the orange elephants and green dinosaurs. Grrr. It was the same bugaboo that surfaced in my first session: slow cognitive processing speed. It sounds like a recurring theme.

 

By then, the session was coming to a close, so there was no time to analyze the results of the PC tests. Instead, Hardwicke wrapped up the morning with a series of follow-up recommendations.

1. Morning exercise EVERY DAY, even if five minutes -- to raise your metabolism. My lack of appetite at 10:30 in the morning had been a tip-off. My metabolism was too slow. If I want to get off to a fast mental start in the morning, I need to get my blood pumping.

2. Green or oolong tea before coffee. This also speeds up the metabolism. I like green tea, so this shouldn't be a problem.

3. Drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water by 7:00 p.m. Oh, man! Is there no end to the sacrifices? A couple of months ago, I started drinking water as a substitute for soft drinks. I was so proud of myself. Now, it seems, two or three glasses per day isn't enough. I have to drink eight! I'll feel like a fish.

4. Cardio at least four times week, for 30 minutes. Slave drivers! It's all I could manage to step up from exercising twice a week to three times a week. Now they're demanding four times!

5. Smart Cookie: Three times daily. The Smart Cookie is kSero's proprietary concoction loaded with supplements to intensify mental focus. Yikes, another supplement!

And that's not the end of it. I suspect that Hardwicke is keeping a much longer list to herself. She just won't hit me with it all at once for fear of scaring me off. But I know what's coming: She'll want me to reduce my salt intake, eat more vegetables, cut out the starches... Before long, I'll be subsisting on broccoli and walnuts. (Just kidding. Hardwicke advocates balanced nutrition, not a veggie-only diet.)

 

But at this stage of my miserable existence -- I'm 53 years old -- the choices aren't pretty. I can continue my slovenly ways and suffer the physical and mental ravages of age, or I can make fundamental changes to my lifestyle that will enable me to function at high levels of performance for decades to come.

 

"You're in your fifties," Hardwicke said. "That's the decade when you have to start taking care of yourself very, very well...." Or else, what? ... She didn't say, but I knew the answer. Or else I start the slide into senescence and senility.

 

The changes are hard to make, she acknowledged, but if I make them, I could live to be 100. "Think about it," she gushed, "You could be only half way through your life!"

 

-- June 21, 2006