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Dr. Ben Rein explains: Procedural Learning

Have you ever wondered how you’re able to ride a bike, play a musical instrument, or drive a car without really thinking about it?

These activities are examples of skills that are acquired through a process known as procedural learning. Procedural learning is acquiring and automating skills involving motor movements. It is different from other types of learning, such as declarative learning, which involves acquiring knowledge and facts.

The Process of Procedural Learning

Procedural learning involves a complex process that occurs in different stages. It starts with the acquisition stage, where we learn the skill through trial and error. This stage involves a lot of conscious effort and attention, as we try to understand the sequence of actions needed to perform the skill.

Applications of Procedural Learning

Procedural learning has a wide range of applications, from sports to music to everyday life. Here are some examples:

Sports: Athletes use procedural learning to master the motor movements involved in their sport. For example, a basketball player learns the sequence of movements involved in shooting a free throw through procedural learning.

Music: Musicians use procedural learning to master their instruments. For example, a guitarist learns the finger movements involved in playing a particular chord or sequence.

Everyday Life: We use procedural learning to master everyday skills, such as typing on a keyboard, cooking a meal, or driving a car.

Conclusion

Procedural learning is a crucial process that allows us to acquire and automate motor movement skills. Understanding the process of procedural learning can help us become more effective learners and teachers, as we can apply the principles of procedural learning to various domains of life. With practice, feedback, attention, and motivation, we can master any skill and become experts in our chosen fields.

To know more: https://mendi.in/blogs/mendi/dr-ben-rein-explains-procedural-learning

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How Better You Performance - Mendi India

Our story began 5 years ago when we were running a neurofeedback clinic in Stockholm.

Record breaking launch

Mendi launched a campaign on leading crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo and quickly became the most funded and pre-ordered product in the categories of brain and mental health.

It started with a clinic

Initially, our patients were wearing sophisticated headsets powered by sensors tracking blood flow and oxygenation levels in the brain. The effects of the training were undeniably positive. This realization lead us to pursue Mendi as a project to make sophisticated brain training accessible to the masses at a democratized price point.

From idea to Mendi

Our first question was whether the world was ready for neurofeedback technology at home? We were shocked by what we found. One in four people is estimated to be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in life, skyrocketing global costs of mental illness to a worrying $6 trillion by 2030. This number is more than the combined costs of cancer, diabetes, and respiratory ailments. Something needed to be done. Fast.

The journey has only just begun

We emerged from our research with a simple purpose: we need to do everything we can to make every brain healthier. We built Mendi to take action and to help push the trajectory of global mental health in the right direction.

To know more: https://mendi.in/pages/about-us

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Marija shares her experience with Mendi

Marija shares her experience with Mendi

To know more: https://mendi.in/

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Four Things Dopamine Actually Does (It’s Not What You Think)

As a cognitive neuroscientist, I’ve noticed that dopamine has been getting a bad rap in the media lately. It is often oversimplified as a molecule whose only function is to bring us pleasure, especially when we do things that are bad for us (like drugs or social media). While it is true that dopamine is a key player in addiction and cravings, what the media often fails to acknowledge is that dopamine is necessary for our brains and bodies (yes, bodies) to function like they are supposed to. The idea that “dopamine = pleasure” is a vast oversimplification of a molecule that does so much more for us.

Here are four things dopamine actually does.

Motivation, goal-oriented behavior, and anticipation of reward:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter of anticipation. That is, it is released when something is about to happen. This can be the feeling of excitement you have when getting ready for a date night, or it can be the act of working towards a long-term goal (e.g., earning a degree or leveling up your business). Dopamine is your drive to do things that require effort, and it makes those things feel “worth it” and rewarding.

Novelty:

Dopamine is released in response to novelty. You went skydiving for the first time? Dopamine release. You saw your favorite musician live and felt like it was the best concert of your life? Dopamine release. Research suggests that this release of dopamine plays a role in increasing memory consolidation (that is, the brain’s process of “encoding” a memory for later retrieval). This is one reason why we have an easier time remembering unique events (e.g., it started snowing when I was in Israel and the staff had a snowball fight in the hotel lobby) than repetitive events (e.g., my drive to work last Monday).

Learning:

When a specific behavior results in a rewarding outcome, dopamine makes the organism (human or animal) more likely to repeat that behavior in the future. This is reinforcement learning. If you have ever trained a dog, you have seen dopamine in action:

“Sit” → dog sits → dog receives a treat (reward) → dog is more likely to sit in the future due to the positive association between “sit” and the reward (treat). Interestingly, something called intermittent reinforcement is the most effective method for conditioning a behavior, but that is a topic for another article (let us know in the comments if you want to hear more about this one).

Finally, let’s address pleasure.

Pleasure centers exist both inside and outside of the dopamine system. Some neurotransmitters beyond dopamine that contribute to the experience of pleasure include opioids, serotonin, and GABA. Dopamine is not the only neurotransmitter involved in pleasure, nor does the presence of dopamine necessitate pleasure. (Think about it: the last time you were scrolling on social media for too long, were you even enjoying it that much?)

Bottom line

So, is the media wrong in equating dopamine to pleasure? Not completely. It’s just an oversimplification. Dopamine is better characterized as having to do with seeking out the thing that will bring us pleasure, rather than just the experience of pleasure itself. Dopamine is a molecule of goal-oriented behavior that is also responsive to novelty, is involved in learning, and helps tune fine motor movement.

To know more: https://mendi.in/

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Mendi uses fNIRS - What is it?

​You may be wondering how a device you strap around your head could possibly tell you anything about the brain. ​ Mendi uses fNIRS, a technology that neuroscientists have been using for decades to conduct neuroimaging research. It’s one of the safest neuroimaging methods that exist. ​ But how is it possible that it’s able to tell you anything about the brain?

To know more: https://mendi.in/

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How Better You Performance - Mendi India

Our story began 5 years ago when we were running a neurofeedback clinic in Stockholm.

Record breaking launch

Mendi launched a campaign on leading crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Indiegogo and quickly became the most funded and pre-ordered product in the categories of brain and mental health.

It started with a clinic

Initially, our patients were wearing sophisticated headsets powered by sensors tracking blood flow and oxygenation levels in the brain. The effects of the training were undeniably positive. This realization lead us to pursue Mendi as a project to make sophisticated brain training accessible to the masses at a democratized price point.

From idea to Mendi

Our first question was whether the world was ready for neurofeedback technology at home? We were shocked by what we found. One in four people is estimated to be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in life, skyrocketing global costs of mental illness to a worrying $6 trillion by 2030. This number is more than the combined costs of cancer, diabetes, and respiratory ailments. Something needed to be done. Fast.

The journey has only just begun

We emerged from our research with a simple purpose: we need to do everything we can to make every brain healthier. We built Mendi to take action and to help push the trajectory of global mental health in the right direction.

To know more: https://mendi.in/pages/about-us