Redesign your brain

The central message of Todd Sampson’s new series, Redesign My Brain Two, is that this is within our reach.

“Regardless of your station in life and regardless of age, we all have an ability to improve our brains,” Sampson says.

In this second series, Sampson goes to extreme lengths to prove just how malleable and plastic the brain is. With some intense training, he takes on huge challenges such as blind rock climbing and high wire walking as part of his journey.

The climax to this adventurous science show is his wire walk, 22 floors above Sydney and its emotional outcome. “Let’s just say things didn’t go according to plan,” Sampson says of the dizzying finale.

To step off a building at 22 storeys with just a thin line behind you and nothing but air, it was an experience I never thought I’d have.”

The three-part series is entertaining, exhilarating and educational.

“I learned I could face my fear for real. I learned I could be really genuinely scared and still do what I needed to do and that’s quite liberating,” he says.

Helping him are some of the world’s most inspirational scientists, experts, and public figures. A crash course gives him nine new mental skills and Sampson is a good student. With practise he enhances his mental endurance, and learns to manage pain. He sharpens his senses – vision, hearing and sense of touch.

“The things that helped me most are meditation and visualisation; they are incredibility powerful things to do. Athletes know this very well. When I was training to do the rock climb or the sky walk I had to visualise as I wasn’t able to go there really.”

Of all the challenges Sampson says he struggled with one most.

“I had to learn how to open a safe, safe cracking. That took hours as it had millions of combinations.

“I’d learned a technique but it was a test of my senses.”

A test revealed he also needs to be careful when risk taking as it found he had an extreme optimism bias. The optimism bias is often found in successful people as they believe they can do things and be OK he says. However in extreme cases, like Sampson’s it can lead to hazardous behaviour.

“I seem to see risk as a challenge not a threat but I’m not sure if this is because of my make-up, genetics, or if it is learned.”

And while the rest of us don’t have to go to such extreme lengths to improve our brain function Sampson’s message is we could all push our current limits.

“The central premise is that we all have the ability to train our brains and that brave people are not without fear they just manage it better.

Over the course of series one and two, Sampson says the message from the brain experts has been fairly consistent, with practical techniques viewers can use every day to face down their own fears.

“A 20 minute brisk walk a day, combined with some sort of calmative task like memorising car number plates along the way is one of the best things you could do for your brain,” he says.

He likens brain fitness to general physical fitness requiring maintenance and consistency of effort.

“I eat well, I exercise, get plenty of sleep, juggle, play table tennis. I try to remember names, and I try to remember numbers, as well as do calculations in my head not on phone.”

He says the best way to maintain brain health is to put it in an environment where it is challenged, outside its comfort zone.

“Your brain can adapt to any situation. It is empowering in a way that brain plasticity says we can all improve, you just have to make an effort.”

And the effort is well worth it with brain training shown to help with the management of chronic pain.

“You have to put pain in context. Pain is real, it’s not a case of suck it up, but you can learn to manage and relate to pain better.”

Sampson says there is now so much research going into the brain right now which is becoming a big focus for science.

“We’re still at the beginning of the journey and our understanding of the brain is changing so much.

“The best part about brain training is there are more possibilities. You just think you can do more in your life and that’s cool, I like that and I like that for my children.”

Redesign My Brain Two starts Thursday May 28 at 8.30pm on ABC.