Updating Helps Us Achieve

The human mind performs many cognitive tasks that control how well we learn, work and manage life.  They aren’t part of IQ or EQ.  These are “executive functions” like self-control, planning, adapting, viewing things from different perspectives, creating new ideas, storing and retrieving information to perform complex tasks, making decisions, using reasoning or logic to solve problems, and much more.  Development of our Executive Functions starts early – some as early as infancy – and matures significantly during the preschool years.  Our Executive Functions continue to develop through adolescence and well into adulthood.  Some studies suggest that Executive Functions may be even more important for academic success than IQ or EQ.  It’s these cognitive processes that help us get things done.  After all, most jobs do not require genius intelligence or deep interpersonal skills, but they do require us to be able to store and retrieve information, solve problems, show up for work on time every day, make decisions, plan and then update plans.

In fact, being able to update plans is one of the most used and yet under-appreciated of our Executive Functions.  Cognitive updating, which is closely connected to working memory, is responsible both for continuously replacing outdated information with new relevant data and allowing us to suppress or inhibit content that is no longer relevant according to task demands.  Updating is what makes it possible to ensure that our behavior is appropriate for a given situation and allows us to adapt to potentially changing circumstances. This is what makes it possible to identify and correct any change from an original plan and supervise behavior — our own or someone else’s — to ensure a plan is being properly carried out.  Updating allows someone to oversee the work of someone else.

From a very young age, we use updating all the time. When a first grade student is doing her math homework, she will need to pay attention to ensure she is adding correctly and writing down the right number.  That involves updating.  A sixth grade student studying Civics must take accurate notes in class so he can study them later.  Updating makes it possible for him to monitor and detect any errors as he writes.

Use of updating continues into adulthood.  A college student driving to a job interview must make sure to drive carefully and take the right exit to the jobsite. He’ll use updating to ensure he’s going the right way and to pay attention to the exits.  In fact, every person uses updating to cook, write, brush teeth and hair, get dressed, etc.  And, we use updating in both professional and personal settings regardless of our occupation.  For example, a carpenter uses updating to ensure that wood for a bookshelf he’s making is being cut properly.  Likewise, a computer programmer constantly uses updating to ensure there are no mistakes in the code that the team is writing.  Workers in every field have to make sure the work – their own or the work of colleagues — is being done properly.  In fact, at work, it is a cognitive ability used countless times over the course of a day; one that every business or organization wants its employees to possess.

The Scoop on Updating

But how much do we know about cognitive updating?  How does this process work?  If this is a cognitive process every brain uses, why are some people much better managers (of their own work as well as the work of other people) than others?  Are some better at updating than others?  Can this skill be flexed and improved?

What Disrupts Updating?

Let’s start with what causes the brain to not update properly.  Updating can be disrupted in children and adults by both environmental and physiological causes.  The most common environmental culprits to disrupt updating are a lack of sleep, intoxication, or exaggerated emotions.  But there are also a large number of clinical disorders or illnesses that impact updating.  In kids, the most common factor affecting updating is Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).  Kids with ADHD have trouble monitoring tasks and updating information to ensure that it is being done properly.  In adults, the ability to update is affected by dyslexia, depression, anxiety, or diseases related to dementia such as Alzheimer’s.  Also, brain damage caused by a stroke, seizure, tumor or other illness can also alter updating ability.

The good news is that every cognitive process, including updating, can be trained and improved. Neuroplasticity is what makes it possible to recover and improve updating and other cognitive skills. Neuroplasticity refers to the way that the neural connections between different “regions” of the brain reorganize themselves.  Neuroplasticity allows us to learn, form memories, and develop new skills.  It can refer to the strengthening (or lessening) of existing neuronal pathways (synaptic plasticity), or the establishment of entirely new neurons and connections (structural plasticity).

There are exercises that can help improve neuroplasticity and therefore improve on the brain’s Executive Functions including updating.  Through continuous exercises that provide practice and use, the brain’s neurons get stronger which means that frequent training will help strengthen the neural connections over time.  And it doesn’t have to take a lot of time.  The best brain training exercises only require 15 minutes a day, two to three times a week.  Or it can be infused into fun time.

Boosting Neuroplasticity to Improve Updating

Here are some simple ways to increase neuroplasticity of the brain and rewire cognitive pathways to be more efficient and effective in updating.

1. Feed your brain

Even though your brain makes up only a tiny proportion of your total body weight, it uses a quarter of the calories you eat.  And, as the saying goes, you are what you eat.  Vitamin D and magnesium are top priorities to promote neuroplasticity. So to enhance your neural pathways, you need to eat an enhanced diet including such things as:  mushrooms, bananas, blueberries, avocado, nuts and seeds such as walnuts and almonds, legumes such as soybeans, fiber-rich whole grains, low-fat dairy products, greens and fish such as mackerel, wild salmon, halibut, and albacore tuna.

2.  Get enough sleep

A good night’s sleep of between seven and nine hours helps optimize brain power.  While people tend to struggle with sleep as they age, that is when it becomes most important to get enough sleep.  There are some things that can help deliver an uninterrupted full night of slumber.  Finish meals 2-3 hours before bedtime. Avoid caffeine in late afternoon and evening.  Dim lighting a few hours before bedtime and eliminate blue light 1-2 hours before bed.  Have a consistent sleep and wake time daily.

3. Take a nap

But, additionally, a short afternoon nap of around 20 minutes further elevates neuroplasticity.  How so? A short nap encourages the growth of dendritic spines, which act as crucial connectors between the neurons in the brain.  So all those countries that allow for an afternoon siesta actually have it right.

4. Don’t burn the candle at both ends

Like any other muscle, the brain needs downtime to restore and repair and improve neuroplasticity.  Managers should enforce a “close the day” ritual that prioritizes reflection and gratitude for small wins and signals the close of business.  A short message to the team saying “Thanks for completing the module and sharing some great ideas in the brainstorming session.  See you tomorrow.” helps communicate appreciation and closes out the day.  Putting a hard stop to the stresses of the day while boosting endorphins creates perfect conditions for neuroplasticity and signals that it’s time to unplug and recharge.

5. Exercise

Everyone knows the benefits of exercising on the body.  Muscular.  Cardiovascular.  Skeletal.  But what is not so well-known is that exercising even strengthens the brain. Exercise increases the quantity of gray matter (actual neurons) and white matter (neuron-connections) in the brain. Physical exercise activates chemical processes that stimulate neuroplasticity through the greater blood supply to the brain – the formation of new neuronal and even neuronal connections themselves.  Secondly, exercise synchronously changes cerebrovascular function and glial cells to support enhanced neuroplasticity. Finally, lowering of toxins and tau through exercise decreases neuronal vulnerability, which is believed to help the maintenance of synaptic function.  So to improve updating and other Executive Functions, do some pushups, pullups and go for a run.  Or do some Yoga or play Simon Says.  All of these exercises increase brain connections.

Next week, we will look at some activities and games that also help strengthen Updating and increases Executive Function.  These activities could very well increase your brain’s health and boost your professional success.  Don’t miss it.

Quote of the Week

“Executive Function is a better predictor of academic success than IQ.”
John Medina

© 2022, Keren Peters-Atkinson. All rights reserved.