Tag Archives: Lynda Shaw

Women’s emotional intelligence grows with age, says expert

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Women improve with age by becoming even better at relationships of all kinds, clearer communicators and have even greater emotional intelligence according to Cognitive Neuroscientist and Business Improvement Strategist, Dr Lynda Shaw.

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With much talk in the media about the drawbacks of ageing, Dr Shaw says women naturally reinvent themselves as they mature. 
Dr Shaw explains: “Both genders can relish that experience brings confidence and we learn to enjoy the here and now more as we age.  We have realistic expectations and have probably invested heavily in great relationships with friends and family. Most of us care about our appearance, but have also learnt to place importance on other things.  That said, women are quite extraordinary as they get older.”  
“As our oestrogen supply runs down around the time of the menopause and we have been around the block a few times and picked up a few bruises along the way, women are more able to observe, read a situation, evaluate and communicate.  They are more likely to have strong relationships and as children grow up, the female needs to find other investments to satisfy her needs.  This is when her attention moves further outside the home and at this stage women are stronger than ever, and can contribute enormously to the economy, community and society as a whole.”  
Women tend to talk more in order to feel bonded to her female friends.  A female is hard-wired to seek out her network in readiness for times of trouble but is also able to ‘read’ situations with greater clarity.  Shaw continues: “It is quite typical for men to think women are almost spooky in the way they intuitively understand things.  The female will ‘see’ problems that males are oblivious to.  Take the scenario of a party   A woman will notice if a couple have fallen out, or if there is an attraction between two people who have spent the evening avoiding one another.  Men rarely notice such things.  There is nothing spooky going on, females are just wired differently to males and they get even better at it with age.”
So why are women different to men?
THE FACTS
• At 6 – 12 weeks gestation a foetus is exposed to a flood of hormone secretion.   This is either a surge of testosterone, oestrogen or progesterone depending on the genetic code of whether we’re male or female. Therefore, this hormonal output results in our sexual differences both physically and in the brain which leads to different patterns of behaviour.
• Scientific research has repeatedly found that the hypothalamus is different in a male and female brain.  This region controls body temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep as well as affecting the endocrine system that also controls sexual activity.
• Studies have also found that men have larger brains, but we now know that size doesn’t matter as there is no difference in intelligence!
• The male brain has more grey matter and the female brain has more white matter so we think differently.  Grey matter is rich in active nerve cell bodies and white matter consists more of bundles of nerve fibres which are the connections between neurons.
• The female brain has a larger limbic system, which means that females tend to be more in touch with their emotions. In addition, the language centres are larger in women and females tend to respond better to auditory stimulation. 
Dr Shaw continues: “Both typical male and female brains have their own strengths, but we are products of our biological genetic code, chemical make-up including hormones, environment and social upbringing. Discussing typical gender characteristics must not inflict unnecessary limitations on any of us.  That said, the world is beckoning for the mature women who have improved with age to embrace and enjoy the wonderful resources and experiences they have.”
www.drlyndashaw.com 
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10 Brain Exercise Tips – by neuroscientist Dr Lynda Shaw

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Neuroscentist, Dr Lynda Shaw  reveals her top 10 brain exercise tips to keep those brain cells growing
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1. Do more than one thing at once. As we get older the brain becomes less efficient at multi-tasking. Combining activities such as jogging and listening to an audiobook will force your brain to do two things at once, improving your ability to multi-task. 
2. Listen to different music. Memorising the lyrics to songs that you don’t know will boost levels of acetylcholine in your brain. Aetylcholine is a neurotransmitter which plays a key role in projecting axons into many areas of the brain. 
3. When looking up new words, investigate their etymology too. That is, look up their linguistic origins. Retrieval of tricky words will become easier if you understand their meaning and the context in which they are used.  
4. Don’t just look, see. Being able to analyse visual information is really important in the 3-D world in which we live. When you leave a room, try to remember the exact location of certain items in it. This will train your brain to focus on your surroundings and actually see what is in front of you.  
5. Get rid of your sat-nav! Relying on others to show you the way causes the brain to become lazy and won’t help you to remember new journeys. Going back to basics and using a map will exercise the part of the brain which is responsible for understanding spatial relationships.
6. Oxygenate your brain! Light exercise stimulates blood circulation which in turn increases glucose and oxygen in your brain. Sitting on the sofa means that the muscles won’t require additional oxygen from the brain. 
7. Do every-day tasks with your non-dominant hand. This will stimulate interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain and cause new neural pathways to develop. Although some tasks such as writing will be tricky at first some people can train themselves to become ambidextrous! 
8. Try neurobics. These are types of exercises which involve exposing your senses to new situations, combining two or more senses in a novel way. These include getting dressed with your eyes shut, using only visual cues whilst interacting with friends and relatives or listening to music whilst smelling flowers. 
9. Mentally rotate. Mental rotation refers to moving things around in your head and is a visuospatial skill. Humans use this naturally when reading maps, using tools, playing chess etc. To practice, picture an arrow or other specific shape pointing right, then turn it around so it points left.
10. Perhaps the most important tip of all is to enjoy the exercises you are doing. Activities that you choose for yourself and gain pleasure from completing will logically produce a more positive effect on the brain than those which are forced upon you!  
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