If someone were to ask you right now, "What are you doing?" you would probably say that you are reading. Yet you are doing so much more in the background and in the foreground of your amazing brain. First and most importantly, you are keeping yourself alive by telling your heart to beat, your lungs to breathe and your other internal organs to function properly. Your brain is monitoring your internal world to keep you healthy and comfortable.
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This week's infographic comes from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) on the demographics of innovation. The study shows some surprising results. Innovators tend to be highly educated white males with a median age of 47.
The reason I like this infographic is because it very clearly summarizes the key points of the source document, so that you can capture a quick understanding of the research without having to decipher the original report. This is an excellent example of how infographics can help our brains sort out complex data into meaningful chunks of visual representation.
You may know Barbara Oakley as the author of the number one MOOC - Learning to Learn. Over one million people so far have taken her course, including me. What you may not know is that Barbara struggled with math and science in school before learning how to rewire her brain to make it "a mind for numbers," leading to a career as an engineer. Don't miss
my interview with Barbara and don't miss this book.
I'm thrilled to be speaking again at the IMA global conference. This year we're meeting at Auburn University so I'm looking forward to spending some time on campus and connecting with my friends who live and work in the Auburn, Alabama area. I'll be talking about the neuroscience of mentoring. Also on the agenda is my friend and colleague Dr. Lois Zachary, who presented at Brain Matters 2015. You can catch her podcast from last year here and read about her book on Margie's bookshelf.
In our next Brain Matters, we're exploring what I call the mind-body continuum. Where does our mind stop and our body begin? How does our mind control our body? How does our body affect our mind?
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