原作者: projectririan  |  译者: 小狼诺夫 

“I just found out that the brain is like a computer. If that’s true, then there really aren’t any stupid people. Just people running DOS.”

- Anonymous 

“我才发现大脑就像一台计算机。如果这是正确的，那么真的没有愚蠢的人了。只不过是些运行着dos的人罢了”- 无名氏

The brain is a three-pound supercomputer. It is the command and control center running your life. It is involved in absolutely everything you do. Your brain determines how you think, how you feel, how you act, and how well you get along with other people. Your brain even determines the kind of person you are. It determines how thoughtful you are; how polite or how rude you are. It determines how well you think on your feet, and it is involved with how well you do at work and with your family. Your brain also influences your emotional well being and how well you do with the opposite sex.

Brain PowerYour brain is more complicated than any computer we can imagine. Did you know that you have one hundred billion nerve cells in your brain, and every nerve cell has many connections to other nerve cells? In fact, your brain has more connections in it than there are stars in the universe! Optimizing your brain’s function is essential to being the best you can be, whether at work, in leisure, or in your relationships.

It’s simple, your brain is at the center of everything you do, all you feel and think, and every nuance of how you relate to people. It’s both the supercomputer that runs your complex life and the tender organ that houses your soul. And while you may run, lift weights, or do yoga to keep your body in good condition, chances are you ignore your brain and trust it to do its job.

No matter what your age, mental exercise has a global, positive effect on the brain. So, here are 22 ways to boost your brain power:

大脑是一个三磅重的超级计算机，它是使你正常生活的命令和控制中心，完全参与你所做的每一件事。你的大脑决定你如何思考、如何感知、如何行动以及如何与其他人和平相处。你的大脑甚至决定你是哪种人，它决定你是如何深思熟虑的、如何礼貌或如何粗鲁的，它决定你能多好地独立思考，它影响你能多好地工作和与家人相处。你的大脑也影响你的情感幸福，以及你能和异性相处多融洽。

Brain你的大脑比我们可以想象的任何计算机都复杂。你知道在你的大脑里有1000亿个神经细胞，并且每个神经细胞都和其它细胞有着千丝万缕的连接么？事实上，你的大脑里的连接比宇宙中的繁星都多！优化你的大脑机能实质就是成为最好的自己，无论在工作、休息或关系方面。

这很简单，你的大脑是你做任何事情、你的所有感官思维、你与他人关系的微妙差异的关键。它是管理你复杂生活的超级计算机，同时也是储藏你精神的脆弱器官。当你可以奔跑、举重或做瑜伽来保持体型的时候，有可能你忽视了你的大脑，信任它的工作。

无论你的年龄、思维训练对你的大脑有什么综合的、积极的影响，这里有22条途径来提高你的脑力：

1. Run Up Your Brain Cells

Research suggests that people who get plenty of physical exercise can wind up with better brains. Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., found that adult mice who ran on an exercise wheel whenever they felt like it gained twice as many new cells in the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning and memory, than mice who sat around all day discussing Lord of the Rings in Internet chat rooms. The researchers weren’t sure why the more active rodents’ brains reacted the way they did, but it’s possible that the voluntary nature of the exercise made it less stressful and therefore more beneficial. Which could mean that finding ways to enjoy exercise, rather than just forcing yourself to do it, may make you smarter - and happier, too.

So, play a sport, train for an event such as a marathon, triathlon or “fun run,” or work out with a buddy to help keep things interesting.

1. 提升你的脑细胞数量

研究显示，有充足体力活动的人们能获得更好的大脑。萨克生物研究学院(La Jolla,Calif)的科学家发现无论何时检测在活动轮上奔跑的成年老鼠都会发现它们海马区（大脑的一个区域，涉及学习和记忆）的细胞比那些只是坐着不动、整天在网络聊天室谈论指环王的那些老鼠新增了一倍。研究人员不确定为什么更多活跃的啮齿类动物的大脑反映了这种情况，但有可能是运动的自愿性使运动者的紧张情绪更低，因而对运动者而言更为有益。这可能意味着从运动中找寻乐趣、而不是仅仅强迫自己去做它可能使你变得更聪明- 也更快乐。

所以，玩项运动，参加马拉松、三项全能或"募捐长跑"等竞赛项目的训练，或和好朋友一起工作来帮助使事情变得有趣。

2. Exercise Your Mind

It isn’t just physical exercise that gets those brain cells jumping. Just like those head-pumped cabbies and piano jockeys, you can build up various areas of your brain by putting them to work. Duke University neurobiology professor Lawrence C. Katz, Ph.D., co-author of Keep Your Brain Alive, says that finding simple ways to use aspects of your brain that may be lagging could help maintain both nerve cells and dendrites, branches on the cells that receive and process information. Just as a new weightlifting exercise builds up underused muscles, Katz says that novel ways of thinking and viewing the world can improve the functioning of inactive sections of the brain.

Experience new tastes and smells; try to do things with your nondominant hand; find new ways to drive to work; travel to new places; create art; read that Dostoyevsky novel; write a buddy comedy for Ted Kennedy and Rush Limbaugh - basically, do anything you can to force yourself out of your mental ruts.

2. 锻炼你的思维

不仅体力活动能使那些脑细胞跳动起来。就像那些head-pumped cabbies和弹钢琴的，你可以通过使大脑的不同区域工作来增大它们。杜克大学的神经生物学教授Lawrence C. Katz（博士，Keep Your Brain Alive的同作者）说，寻找简单方法来使用大脑的可能迟钝的方面可能有助于维护神经细胞和突起（细胞的分支，用以接受和处理信息）。就像新的举重运动增大未充分利用的肌肉，Katz说用新奇的方法来思考和审视这个世界可以提高大脑怠惰区域的功能。

体验新的味觉和嗅觉；尝试用你非惯用的手做事情；找新路径开车去公司；去陌生的地方旅行；创造艺术；阅读杜斯妥也夫斯基的小说；为Ted Kennedy和Rush Limbaugh写一篇兄弟喜剧（buddy comedy）-基本上，就是强迫自己做那些常规思维之外的事情。

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