Science-​​Based Mental Training & Visualization for Improved Learning

Mental Training and Visualization

• Studied since the late 1800s
• Relies on neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity

• Developmental plasticity (birth to age 25) 
  • Passive plasticity
  • Changes in the nervous system through engaging in the world and experiencing life
• Adult neuroplasticity (adolescence to old age) 
  • Self-​​directed adaptive plasticity
  • Directing plasticity towards specific desired learning

Types of Neuroplasticity

• Adaptive neuroplasticity: improves performance and function
• Maladaptive neuroplasticity: occurs after injury or trauma, does not improve performance

Mental Training and Visualization Techniques

• Must be performed in a specific way to complement actual performance
• Accelerate learning and consolidate information for long-​​term retention
• Leverage the difference between real and imagined experiences

Applying Mental Training and Visualization

• Can be used across various domains (music, math, sports, etc.)
• Tailor techniques to specific challenges (public speaking, test-​​taking, etc.)
• Supported by neuroscience studies and highly effective
  Developmental vs. Self-​​Directed Adaptive Plasticity
• Developmental plasticity: brain and nervous system changes in response to experiences 
• Self-​​directed adaptive plasticity: directing specific changes through learning cognitively or motor functions 
  • Starts in adolescence
  • Requires focused, dedicated attention and periods of deep rest (sleep)

Self-​​Directed Adaptive Plasticity Process

• Focused, dedicated attention to the thing you’re trying to learn 
  • Often accompanied by agitation, frustration, and release of norepinephrine and epinephrine
• Sleep, especially on the first night following the focused attention 
  • Neuroplasticity (rewiring of neural connections) occurs during sleep

Long-​​Term Potentiation (LTP) and Long-​​Term Depression (LTD)

• LTP: strengthening of connections between neurons
• LTD: quieting or silencing of specific synapses (connections between neurons) 
  • Critical for motor skill learning and cognitive skill learning

Motor Skill Learning

• Involves both LTP and LTD
• Eliminating incorrect movements to arrive at only the correct movements
• Examples: golf swing, tennis serve, child learning to crawl or walk, child learning to eat with utensils

Cognitive Skill Learning

• Also involves LTP and LTD
• Suppressing certain information or sounds to focus on the correct ones
• Examples: learning a new language, suppressing native language or babbling sounds
  Neuroplasticity and Mental Training
• Neuroplasticity: building up (long term potentiation) and sculpting down (long term depression) of connections 
• Mental training and visualization capture both potentiation and depression aspects of neuroplasticity
• Not a replacement for real-​​world cognitive or motor behavior, but can enhance learning speed and stability

Mental Training and Visualization

• Most people can mentally visualize simple objects and scenes
• Brain activity during visualization similar to real-​​world experiences
• Applies to visual, auditory, and somatosensory domains
• Some people have difficulty visualizing (aphantasia)

Principles of Effective Mental Training and Visualization

• Keep visualizations brief (15–20 seconds) and sparse
• Repeat visualizations with a high degree of accuracy
• Simpler visualizations are better for those with difficulty visualizing

Research on Mental Visualization

• Classic work by Roger Shepard (Stanford) and Stephen Kosslyn (Harvard)
• Shepard’s experiments: mental visualization of simple objects and their rotation
• Time taken for mental visualization increased with complexity of objects and tasks
• Findings later confirmed using fMRI
  Mental Visualization and Its Effects on Learning 
• Mental visualization at the neural level is identical to real-​​world events 
  • Processing speed of imagined experiences is the same as real experiences
  • Spatial relationship between imagined and real experiences is the same
• Mental training and visualization can be effective but not as effective as real-​​world behavior and thinking 
  • Ideal situation: combine real training with mental training
• Bistable images and impossible figures 
  • Can be seen in the real world but not imagined in the mind’s eye
  • Can be imagined after physically drawing or tracing them
• Third principle of mental training and visualization 
  • More effective when performing the same or similar mental and physical tasks in the real world
    Principles of Mental Training and Visualization
• Mental training and visualization should be simple, brief, and repeated. 
• Mental training and visualization is not a replacement for real-​​world motor or cognitive training, but an addition that can help.
• Combine mental training and visualization with real-​​world behaviors and experiences that are very similar.
• Assign cognitive labels to mental training and visualization that can be matched to real-​​world training and experiences.

Examples and Experiments

• People tend to move their eyes up when imagining things above them (e.g., a ceiling) and down when imagining things below them (e.g., a snake on the floor).
• When asked to imagine an elephant and a mouse, it takes longer for people to process details of the smaller object (the mouse) than the larger object (the elephant).

Application to Learning

• When applying mental training and visualization to learning a skill (e.g., golf swing), it is important to:
• Keep the mental training brief and repeated.
• Perform the skill in the real world in addition to mental training.
• Assign a name or identity to the specific skill being practiced in both the mental training and real-​​world practice.
• Accurately recapitulate the real-​​world training in the mental training and visualization.
  Mental Training and Visualization
• Equivalence of mental imagery and real-​​world perception and behavior 
  • Mental training and visualization can improve performance in various disciplines
  • Effective mental training involves brief, simple, and repeated visualizations
• Key principles of effective mental training and visualization: 
  • Visualization should be brief, simple, and repeated
  • Perform 50–75 repetitions per session
  • Rest for approximately 15 seconds between repetitions
  • Perform mental training 3–5 times per week
  • Mental training is most effective for improving skills already demonstrated in the real world
• Mental training can help increase accuracy and frequency of successful performance 
  • Not as effective for learning entirely new skills
  • Best used to enhance speed and accuracy of existing skills
• Once a skill is consolidated, mental training may not be necessary to maintain performance 
  • Can move on to focus on different skills or sequences for improvement
    Inside Tracker and Apolipoprotein B
• Inside Tracker provides personalized dashboard for nutrition, behavior, and supplement-​​based approaches to improve health values 
• Now includes apolipoprotein B (ApoB) measurement in their ultimate plan 
  • ApoB is a key marker of cardiovascular health
• 20% off Inside Tracker’s plans at insidetracker​.com/​h​u​b​e​r​man

Real World Training vs. Mental Training

• Real world training is more effective than mental training
• Mental training is more effective than no training 
  • Useful for maintaining or improving skills during injury or inability to perform physical activity
• Combining real world training and mental training can yield better results than either alone 
  • However, real world training should still be prioritized
  • Adding mental training to a maximum amount of real world training can lead to significantly greater results

Importance of Sleep and Training

• Good sleep is essential for neuroplasticity and skill retention after both real world and mental training
• Aim for quality sleep 80% of the nights in your life
• Placement of mental training (before or after real world training) is not critical based on current literature 
  • If there are studies suggesting otherwise, please share in the comments or send to Dr. Huberman
    Motor Skill Acquisition and Sleep
• Matthew Walker’s paper: “Sleep and Time Course of Motor Skill Learning” 
  • Published in 2003
  • Highlights importance of sleep following training for consolidation of motor learning
  • Phases of sleep related to consolidation of motor learning

Mental Training and Visualization: Sex and Age Differences

• Initial studies showed sex differences in mental visualization ability
• Majority of quality peer-​​reviewed studies show no significant differences between males and females
• Age-​​related effects: 
  • For individuals 65 or older, a combination of physical and mental training may be more effective than physical training alone

Mental Training: First Person vs. Third Person

• First person mental training: imagining doing something from the inside out 
  • More effective than third person mental training
• Third person mental training: imagining doing something from the outside in 
  • Less effective than first person mental training

Eyes Open vs. Eyes Closed

• Many studies of mental training and visualization have been done with eyes open
• Watching videos of oneself performing a skill can be effective for third person mental training
• First person mental training is more effective than third person mental training

Study: Mental Practice Modulates Functional Connectivity Between the Cerebellum and the Primary Motor Cortex

• Published in 2022
• Primary motor cortex (M1): small but important strip of neurons in the front of the brain 
  • Communicates with lower motor neurons in the ventral horn of the spinal cord
• Study shows that mental practice can modulate the functional connectivity between the cerebellum and the primary motor cortex
  Motor Neurons and Motor Cortex
• Motor neurons in the spinal cord send axons to muscles for contraction 
• Lower motor neurons generate movement, responsible for reflexive and learned movements
• Upper motor neurons (M1 primary motor cortex) control lower motor neurons through directed action

Cerebellum

• Located at the back of the brain, involved in balance, eye movements, timing, and motor learning
• Communicates with the primary motor cortex (M1) through inhibition
• Can activate motor cortex by inhibiting the inhibition, leading to more excitation

Mental Training and Visualization

• Mental practice can enhance speed and accuracy of motor performance
• Neural circuits between cerebellum and primary motor cortex are involved in motor skill improvement
• Mental training reduces inhibition, allowing motor cortex to generate movements with more accuracy and speed

Go and No-​​Go Components

• Motor learning involves both go (action) and no-​​go (withholding action) components
• Mental training and visualization can improve both go and no-​​go aspects of motor performance and skill learning
• Basal ganglia are involved in go vs. no-​​go tasks and learning

Stop Signal Task

• Developed by Gordon Logan and William Cowan
• Involves pressing left or right keys in response to left or right facing arrows on a screen
• Limited time to respond, tests motor performance and skill acquisition
• Mental training and visualization can improve performance in tasks like the stop signal task
  Reaction Time and Stop Signal Task
• Reaction time test: press the correct key corresponding to the direction of an arrow 
• Stop signal task: occasionally, a stop signal (e.g., red circle or red X) appears after the arrow with a delay (100–350 milliseconds) 
  • The goal is to not press any key when the stop signal appears
• Shorter delays between the arrow and stop signal make it easier to withhold key pressing behavior
• Longer delays make it more challenging to withhold key pressing behavior

Motor Imagery Combined with Physical Training

• Study: “Motor Imagery Combined with Physical Training Improves Response Inhibition in the Stop Signal Task”
• Findings:
  • Mental training and physical training groups both experienced significant improvements in reaction time and accuracy in the stop signal task
  • The combination of mental training and physical training outperformed either mental or physical training alone
• Implications:
  • If the goal is to withhold inappropriate behaviors, a combination of mental and physical training is more effective than either training alone
  • For coaches and students, this is important when trying to learn how to withhold particular action sequences

Aphantasia and Synesthesia

• Aphantasia: a condition where individuals have difficulty or an inability to generate visual imagery 
  • Can vary in severity from complete absence of mental imagery to poor or rudimentary ability
• Synesthesia: a condition where individuals experience perceptual blending, such as associating musical notes with specific colors 
  • Does not necessarily lead to improved abilities in related tasks (e.g., playing piano or perceiving colors)
    Aphantasia, Synesthesia, and Autism
• Aphantasia: difficulty or inability to generate mental or visual imagery 
• Synesthesia: sensory experiences linked to unrelated stimuli (e.g., seeing colors when hearing music)
• Study found a link between aphantasia and weak visual imagery 
  • Aphantasics can also be synesthetes and vice versa
• Study explored relationship between aphantasia and autism spectrum features 
  • Found that people with aphantasia tend to exhibit more autism spectrum features
  • Unclear if aphantasia causes placement on autism spectrum or if autism spectrum features cause aphantasia
  • Not all people on the autism spectrum have aphantasia
  • Not all people on the autism spectrum lack theory of mind (ability to empathize and understand others’ motivations)

Social Cognition and Mental Training

• Social cognition: learning of how to behave in certain circumstances, considered normal or atypical
• Social learning and social cognition involve observation and visualization of appropriate and inappropriate behavior
• Mental training and visualization can improve social cognition and behavior

Effective Mental Training and Visualization

• Key components of effective mental training and visualization: 
  • Brief epochs of specific sequences of motor and/​​or cognitive behavior
  • Simple tasks that can be easily imagined
  • Real-​​world execution of specific movements and cognitive tasks
  • Naming things and creating parallels between real-​​world training and mental training
• Mental training and visualization can improve real-​​world performance of cognitive and physical tasks
• Consistent practice of mental training and visualization leads to improvements in performance