Brain-a-thons

If you are trying to work out something in your head and you seem to be stuck, your legs may literally be the way to get unstuck.

One of the things I find most interesting to read is the secret lives of the seemingly mundane or ordinary. In the case of an elegantly written piece by Adam Gopnik in the New Yorker, it was about the secret lives of the pedestrian. Yes, literally, the “pedestrian.” It was an engaging account of walking as dug up in various literature.

Apparently, in the late 1800’s in the US for example, walking became a spectator sport where personalities for odd reasons, like having lost a bet, decided to walk vast distances. And like Forrest Gump who ran for because he could, eventually, people started waiting for these walkers to cheer them on. Eventually too, people started paying people to walk. But just like most human forays, it eventually evolved into something grittier. People started to watch walkers to see when they would drop. And thus, was born “walking”, as one of the “ancestor” sports of endurance extravaganzas like the Amazing Race, Survivor etc.

Researchers have recently verified something about walking in experiments that may not be “cable worthy” but may be worth a lot to how we think. Specifically, they found that walking may lead you to be creative.

In their experiments, they measured creativity in terms of the alternate uses they can name for certain objects (stand-up comedians are so good at this) and also for how they can think of a pattern that can string together named objects. For the last experiment, the measure was a little bit more difficult – producing analogies from a “base” phrase or statement (example: if the base phrase is “robbed safe”, the analogy is “the loss of innocence or liberty”).

The experiments found 3 things: One, compared to sitting, walking on a treadmill increased creativity  for both measures but much more so in naming alternate uses for objects; second, walking (after sitting or before sitting) still increased measures for creativity as compared to just sitting; third, creativity increased as much when walking outdoors as compared to walking on a treadmill indoors; and lastly, walking indoors and outdoors did produce creative analogies than sitting but the ones who walked outdoors produced better analogies than the ones who walked indoors or sat outdoors.

All of the experiments seemed to prove that walking wins over sitting in terms of producing creative ideas. Creativity is being able to see patterns from seemingly random stuff which creates a whole new way of seeing everyday “mess.”  Because it is not yet possible to hook an fMRI machine to our brains while walking to see what brain regions seem to be fired up and connected when walking, scientists are not yet sure of how exactly walking improves creativity. But what we know is that walking increases circulation to our organs, including our brains which even if it is puny (a mere 3 pounds) eat up 20% of the calories we take.

Creativity then seems not to only rest on external stimulants (like another book, another person etc.) like but also your very own body. When you move it, you also move your mind in ways it may not have gone before. And that is what creativity means.

Previous studies have found that for 65 and older, walking or doing aerobic exercises improved connectivity in the brain regions that are associated with creative thinking. The experiments here showed that walking, regardless of age, should be part of the journeys of our bodies as well as our thinking.

This is why the oppressive heat these days may really be dampening mindwork. One cannot take the usual walk that we usually can in “normal” temperatures. Public spaces should allow for shaded walks so that we are able to “air out” our caged thinking and get back to our homes and work places with a “new” brain.  It turns out that leg work whether walkathons, marathons or simple walks with friends are also brain-a-thons. – Rappler.com