Asian Journal- The Filipino-American Community Newspaper

CONTRARY to old science that the functions of your brain stop developing after childhood, new science is revealing that your brain is "plastic" and continues to grow and expand throughout your life depending on how you stimulate or train it.

In an experiment, neuroscientist Alvaro Pascual-Leone showed that whether you are playing a real piano or mentally imagining your fingers playing the notes of a music score, your brain processes the information the same way. Physically experiencing an action and visualizing it with your mind stimulates the same neural activity. This new and crucial information shows that the way you focus your mental attention directly activates the brain’s circuitry and tissue growth. Your mental activity sculpts your brain, which controls your biological and emotional functions.

It is empowering to realize that you can literally transform your life according to how you focus your mind. On the other hand, this means you have to be more aware of the information that you expose your mind to on a daily basis.

This is especially true for children because their minds are like sponges. The messages they receive in the formative stages of life leave a powerful imprint on their subconscious. Educators, entertainers, and parents have to take more responsibility as to what children are exposed to.

If you understand that the brain is sculpted by mental practice and repetitive actions practiced either physically or mentally, the implications upon children who spend hours playing video games or watching television become quite clear. In the world of virtual realities and video games, children and teens take on character personas and use weapons, having a definite impact on a child’s mind development.

At young ages, children play in a realm between fantasy and reality and cannot always separate the two. They become immersed in their imaginations, becoming the characters in the digital world and perceiving virtual reality experiences as real. They are not able to separate themselves from the challenges, wins, losses, or violence they exert in a game environment. A child’s mind processes this information and they feel the intensity of the emotions. Biologically, adrenaline and stress hormones are released into their bodies, and the aggressions are imprinted in their mind.