Neuro Hack of the Week

Neuro Hack of the Week.

Did you see our Facebook post on Monday of this week about children with autism spectrum disorder, physical exercise and rehabilitation, and improved learning scores? If so, this short piece while have much more meaning. If not, if you take time to go back and read it now, this will have more meaning. 

Try this at home

Sit down in a comfortable place and take a book off of the shelf which has a moderate amount of complexity to it. Open the book to any page and start a recorder (on your phone or with a dictaphone/tape recorder if your are old school). Begin reading and record your voice for approximately 1 minute.

Now standup on 1 leg in a place where you won't fall down. Open the book to a different page, start the recorder, and read for approximately 1 minute.

Go back and listen to both recordings. What did you hear? Pay attention to things like the flow of words left (called prosody), enunciation, pronunciation, and comprehension. How much do you remember for the first versus the second reading?

We have just witnessed the power of the cerebellum and it is implications in learning. If learning has a proprioceptive component, you will generally have a better understanding, better comprehension, and better pronunciation.  This is why few years ago when they did that study and schools and replaced kids desks with bicycles fitted with a desk attached to it, their test scores soared. (see here https://www.fastcoexist.com/3036607/this-school-has-bikes-instead-of-desks-and-it-turns-out-thats-a-better-way-to-learn)

When you need to learn something, stand up, walk around, balance on 1 leg, use a bosu ball, rocker board etc. Do the same with your patients. He will get much more of it, it will take last time, and your outcomes will improve.

Just a little neuro hack from The Gait Guys