korrents

Tommy Wood

@tommy-wood · 26 positions · 0 changes of mind

Associate professor at the University of Washington, where his laboratory studies brain health across the lifespan; he holds a medical degree from Oxford and a PhD in physiology and neuroscience from Oslo.

Tommy Wood did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

  1. Our reading

    Neuroplasticity is as much the removal of connections as the growth of new ones, so pruning is a form of learning rather than a form of decay.

    Their wordsA lot of people don't realize that particularly brain development, but then also the refining of functions in the brain through neuroplasticity includes the pruning or removal of signapses. Often we think about it's all about growth and new connections, but actually it also involves the refining or removal of of other connections that aren't needed.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:05:55 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 1st of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  3. Our reading

    The adult brain's stock of neurons is essentially fixed, and that is no limit on learning, because plasticity is the changing of connections between the cells you already have.

    Their wordsBut just because we have a fixed relatively fixed number of cells doesn't mean that we can't change the connections between those cells. And that's happening all the time. And that is, you know, the main principle of neuroplasticity.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:08:04 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 2nd of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  5. Our reading

    Putting older adults into activities that are genuinely new to them improves cognitive function in randomised trials, with executive function the most reliable gain.

    Their wordsHowever, there's an increasing body of literature that shows that by engaging older adults in novel cognitive activities, you see improvements in function. So that can be language learning. Uh that can be uh complex like coordinative movement or exercise. You see the same things with um like musical training like people learning a new musical instrument or learning um musical theory trying to identify different patterns in music. And you see in randomized control trials improvements particularly in executive function that seems to be most common across those different interventions.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:13:19 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 3rd of 26 in this recording

    language learning

    Interesting

  7. Our reading

    Training visual processing speed in later life lowers dementia risk two decades later, which continuing to do what you are already good at does not.

    Their wordsThey just published a secondary analysis of the active trial that showed that um those who did processing speed training with uh booster sessions at one and three years had a significantly decreased risk of dementia 20 years later.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:19:14 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 4th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  9. Our reading

    Crosswords and sudoku are closer to meditation than to cognitive training, because they keep you focused without ever making you struggle.

    Their wordsEven if you're doing hard ones, if you look at the work of people like uh Gloria Mark, the things like crossword and sudoku, they're less of like a true cognitive challenge, right? It's it's almost has more of like a meditation meditative like effect, right? Which can be a good thing, right? So you're focused but not challenged really.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:23:27 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 5th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  11. Our reading

    Digital brain training makes you better at the training and at nothing else, which is the strongest argument against it.

    Their wordsThis is one of the main arguments against online or you know digital brain training is that you get very good at doing that one specific thing but it doesn't transfer over to other areas of your life.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:25:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 6th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  13. Our reading

    Partner dancing, not puzzles, has the best evidence of any activity for improving cognitive function in older adults.

    Their wordsthere are meta analyses of these interventions in older adults showing that ballroom and line dancing have the greatest effect on cognitive function. And so both of those require other people as well as learning you know various sets of of movements.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:28:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 7th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  15. Our reading

    We lose cognitive function with age largely because adults refuse to be bad at things, and so stop giving the brain the novel input that maintains it.

    Their wordspotentially one of the reasons why we lose lose cognitive function as we get older is because we stop giving our brain novel inputs or complex inputs that help maintain function, drive neuroplasticity. And I think one of the reasons that that happens is because adults hate being bad at things, right?
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:30:53 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 8th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  17. Our reading

    Flow is not required to perform at your best: a clutch state, in which you perform well and it still feels like hard work, is just as legitimate a peak state.

    Their wordsAnd both of those are perfectly reasonable states in which to perform. And assuming that you have to be in flow to perform just isn't true if you look at like how you know athletes perform in the moment.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:40:03 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 9th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  19. Our reading

    Learning cannot happen in flow, because getting better at a skill means working beyond the level at which you can express it.

    Their wordsIf you want to get better at that skill, you have to work even further beyond your current capacities which which will move you out of flow, right?
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:40:44 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 10th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  21. Our reading

    How much a pianist practises, not how old they are, predicts how well they play, which makes skill decline with age mostly a training problem.

    Their wordsAnd what they [snorts] found was that the most important predictor of how well somebody performed at those piano specific skills was not their age, it was how much they practice.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:50:03 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 11th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  23. Our reading

    The 10,000-hour rule misreports its own source: 10,000 hours was how much expert violinists had practised by the age of twenty, and they were not experts yet.

    Their wordsThe simple answer is what the study showed was that 10,000 hours was the average amount of time that an expert violinist had spent practicing by the time they reached 20 years old. That's what the study showed. They weren't even experts by that point.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:52:34 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 12th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  25. Our reading

    Nobody can do genuinely hard cognitive work for eight hours a day; the sustainable unit is one or two sessions of sixty to ninety minutes.

    Their wordsWe kind of expect that we can go to work and we can work really hard for eight hours straight during the day, but like the brain doesn't really work like that.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 0:53:45 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 13th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  27. Our reading

    No single food explains the link between a Mediterranean diet and lower dementia risk, so what matters is overall diet quality rather than olive oil or avoiding meat.

    Their wordsAnd there was no food or you know olive oil or food group or you eating more or less meat that changed the relationship between the Mediterranean diet and dementia risk. So what that tells me is it's much more about whole foods.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:02:32 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 14th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  29. Our reading

    The relationship between energy intake and brain size is a bell curve: chronic caloric excess leaves you with a smaller brain, just as chronic restriction does.

    Their wordsAnd what they found is there's kind of this um bell-shaped curve between energy availability and brain volume. And in general, brain volume, right, the more the better, right, we think. And so if you're chronically calorically restricted, your brain is smaller um because you just don't have the resources to invest in, you know, the structure um and to maintain it. At the other end, you see the same thing. So if you're chronically in a chronic state of chloric excess, you also tend to have a smaller brain on average.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:04:06 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 15th of 26 in this recording

    energy

    Interesting

  31. Our reading

    Trials of omega-3s and of B vitamins keep coming back null because the two depend on one another, and supplementing either while the other is low does nothing.

    Their wordsBut there are now at least three randomized control trials that have shown that omega-3 status and B vitamin status interact and they're dependent on one another. So, if you give uh B vitamins to somebody who has elevated homocyine, you bring down their homocyine, but they have poor omega-3 levels, you don't see any benefit.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:14:27 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 16th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  33. Our reading

    The evidence on nutrients supports exactly one instruction, do not be deficient, and nothing is known about pushing a level above the normal range.

    Their wordsI will say that the best evidence we have just says in reality don't be deficient. If you can reach that threshold of not being deficient or insufficient, maybe that's enough.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:22:49 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 17th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  35. Our reading

    How an athlete says they feel predicts their performance better than their HRV or any blood marker you can collect.

    Their wordsAnd we know that how you feel, so how an athlete feels is a much better predictor of their performance than their HRV or any of their blood test.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:33:58 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 18th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  37. Our reading

    Caffeine makes people feel that they are performing better on demanding cognitive tasks while they are actually performing worse.

    Their wordsSo there there are studies that show that um uh giving people caffeine makes them [snorts] feel like they're performing better, but they're actually performing worse on certain cognitive tasks.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:35:33 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 19th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  39. Our reading

    High-intensity exercise improves hippocampal structure and function precisely because it releases a lot of cortisol, which is the opposite of the case made against hard training.

    Their wordsThis study directly shows that working really hard, releasing a lot of cortisol in high-intensity interval training actually improves hippocample structure and function um over over time.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:46:06 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 20th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  41. Our reading

    Stress is the mechanism of adaptation rather than something to be minimised, and the case against it comes from conflating chronic stress with acute stress.

    Their wordsBut the way that I think about it or I try and talk about it is that actually the stress response and this is as kind of Sier originally described it is stress drives adaptation.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:51:37 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 21st of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  43. Our reading

    Cardio and weights build different brains: aerobic exercise benefits the gray matter and the hippocampus, resistance training the white matter.

    Their wordsWhereas aerobic exercise on that kind of intensity spectrum we just talked about seems to particularly benefit the gray matter which includes the hippocampus. Resistance training seems to particularly benefit the white matter.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 1:57:03 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 22nd of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  45. Our reading

    About half of all dementia is preventable, and most of that preventable half is Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia.

    Their wordswe've gotten to a point now where it's generally accepted that potentially half of cases of dementia are preventable and I think the majority of that falls into those first two buckets Alzheimer's and vascular dementia
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:04:41 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 23rd of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  47. Our reading

    The dementia risk from short sleep starts below six hours a night, not below eight.

    Their wordsbut I mean in reality when you look at the data on sleep loss and dementia risk The cut off is really around 6 hours. So if you're consistently sleeping fewer than 6 hours, that's where risk starts to increase.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:08:11 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 24th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  49. Our reading

    Cognitive decline is a staircase rather than a slope: the big drops happen after episodes of serious illness.

    Their wordscognitive function doesn't just decline sort of linearly or steadily with age. It goes down, you know, a little bit on average, but the biggest decreases sort of happen stepwise after periods of significant illness.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:17:00 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 25th of 26 in this recording

    Interesting

  51. Our reading

    Cooling someone after a head injury does not help; what matters is stopping them from getting hot.

    Their wordsSo there have been lots of studies where they've done cooling hypothermia in people after traumatic brain injuries and concussions hasn't really shown much of an effect. What seems to be important is preventing hyperothermia.
    spoken · machine transcript hear it at 2:20:35 · all korrents from this recording

    ↗Accelerate Learning & Increase Cognitive Capacity | Dr. Tommy Woodyoutube.com 26th of 26 in this recording

    Trauma

    Interesting