will increasing brain neural connective complexity increase cns output potential?

[AzureWarrior]

Not talking about the strength of connections (resulting from.. say  repetitive rigorous planche training) but the variety of connections, meaning that every new skill learned/practiced (even non-physical one, such as math)

ultimately increases the max capacity of the central nervous system signal, which leads to more muscle recruitment in exercises.

 

In essence, I'm trying to figure out what affects the max strength capacity of the brain's signal besides the obvious conscious intention of the person. any book on the topic would be much appreciated

 

edit:

 

To illustrate, take bruce lee for example, when he punches/kicks, you can see his face and body entirely contract and dedicated towards the movement, making it fast and explosive, opposingly a fat person's decision to do the same would be slower and weaker (obviously because he's untrained and fat he will be slower, but i'm strictly speaking about the strength of the decision- of the signal). also it doesn't have to be a fat person, it can also be a trained man, yet he still won't have the capacity for that decision.

 

edit 10.6: A  more precise question: what determines the maximal amount(capacity) of generated electricity in the brain with decision? say a  strong decision activates 10/10 of brain electricity, how can you increase it to 10/11; so the decision will be stronger?

Edited October 6, 2014 by AzureWarrior

[Jurre]

Are you talking about if cognitive capacity has a positive influence on physical muscle recruitment?

I.E. having better cognitive capacity improves physicality?

 

I'm also very interested in this aswell as the other way around. If and how physicality improves cognitive capacity.

[Julian Aldag]

If I understand what your are saying then yes.  Learning a new skill increases neuroplasticity in the brain and overtime ,by repeated the

same skill, the neurons will make deeper connections and fire more efficiently with less energy.   The whole body likes to be efficient

and will take the path of least resistance.

 

 Like walking through a wheat field.  The first time you do it, it's a bit of a struggle. But the more you take the same path, the more down-trodden it gets and is easier to walk though.  A simple metaphor and I believe is how the brain becomes more efficient.

 

In reply to your Bruce Lee comment:  I'm guessing this type of performance is from a mix of many many repetitions and also with an astute awareness about his body, let him to make subtle changes until he got the desired result. 

 

I might be talking out of my ass, but that is the first thing to come to mind.  

[Julian Aldag]

They say one way to combat the ageing brain is to do things you are bad at. This increases the energy requirements of the brain to 

make new connections as opposed to eventually atrophying through lack of stimulus and low energy requirements (because of efficiency). 

[GoldenEagle]

No. When adrenaline is released into the bloodstream the brain is capable of producing more electrical signals for a short amount of time.

 

More neural connections within the brain makes a given creature more intelligent.

 

More neural connections throughout the body makes a given creature more precise with it's movements.

 

Stronger tendons gives the skeleton of a given creature more muscular strength.

 

Training increases the efficiency which electrical signals travel throughout the body.

[Jurre]

I don't think training is just as physical as you say it is. I think there is a lot of cognitive stuff going on. Feeling the body etc.

Perhaps due to training you get to understand and feel your body better and with that feel and understand emotions better.

[Philipp Zimmermann]

Hi,

as far as I understood this topic, I would say that Bruce Lee is able to move at such pace and in such 'alien' position, because he and his body knows that he can savely do it. A untrained or'fat' man would has a higher chance to get hurt, while trying the same that's why is brain will try to stop is approach and the individual has no real/direct controll over this process. He can only teach his body this new movement with training (like jules said).

So the body kinda works against the mind, because his first interest is to stay healthy, but you can lower the resistance by teaching the body that it is save or by being in a stressful situation like ryane-willams stated.

But you cant increase the electricity capacity of the body, because the a action potential ( aktionspotential) of the neurons has a unchangeable max, but you can increase how often the action potential is fired and the more often it fires the stronger the signal will be.

I hope its understandable^^

[Jesse Frigo]

Not talking about the strength of connections (resulting from.. say  repetitive rigorous planche training) but the variety of connections, meaning that every new skill learned/practiced (even non-physical one, such as math)

ultimately increases the max capacity of the central nervous system signal, which leads to more muscle recruitment in exercises.

 

In essence, I'm trying to figure out what affects the max strength capacity of the brain's signal besides the obvious conscious intention of the person. any book on the topic would be much appreciated

 

edit:

 

To illustrate, take bruce lee for example, when he punches/kicks, you can see his face and body entirely contract and dedicated towards the movement, making it fast and explosive, opposingly a fat person's decision to do the same would be slower and weaker (obviously because he's untrained and fat he will be slower, but i'm strictly speaking about the strength of the decision- of the signal). also it doesn't have to be a fat person, it can also be a trained man, yet he still won't have the capacity for that decision.

 

edit 10.6: A  more precise question: what determines the maximal amount(capacity) of generated electricity in the brain with decision? say a  strong decision activates 10/10 of brain electricity, how can you increase it to 10/11; so the decision will be stronger?

If you are trying to get stronger by simply thinking, I don't think it will work.  Training your central nervous system allows you to fire more muscular units, but those pathways have to be trained at intensity in order to be used at intensity.  Also, you can train one pathway to become stronger and more efficient without training another.

 

A few areas of research that you can consider looking into:

Involuntary muscular contractions from electrical stimulation

 

Epilepsy- siezures are sometimes compared to electrical brain storms.  I've heard that people can break bones during a siezure, but that seems to be more from falling than anything else.

 

Some primates are incredibly strong (chimpanzees, for  one) relative to their size, but my understanding is that they have almost no fine-motor control.  When their muscle fires, the whole thing fires at once.

 

These topics might lead you in the direction that you are trying to go.

 

As far as Bruce Lee goes, he's the man that said:

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.

 

He's the man that came up with the three-inch and one-inch punches. 

The fact that his entire body contracts when he is executing a move most likely means that full-body contraction leads to the most effective motion for what he was trying to do.  In reality, all martial arts teach the same thing, though.  Punches come from the legs.  Kicks come from the hips.  Chinese Tai chi has a long history of full-body tension in exercises like push hands and such.  Some ancient Chinese martial artist talked about how understanding "air" was essential to understanding strength (likely a reference to the valsalva maneuver).  Even in modern weightlifting and powerlifting, lifters are taught from the beginning to be as tense as possible when lifting- a good bench press position requires braced, tense legs and torso.  A good squat position requires tension in the abs and throughout the back.

 

Developing this ability to fire every muscle fiber in your body at one time, when you want to, in the direction you want, takes a fair amount of training, regardless of the methods of training, but it isn't about increasing the amount of electricity in your brain.