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Book review: Smarter, by Dan Hurley

Everyone has foggy "senior moments": you sometimes mislay your mobile phone; you can't remember a password. But you can raise your game whatever your age, judging by the findings of neuroscience reporter Dan Hurley.

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Smarter: The New Science of Building Brain Power


by Dan Hurley
Hudson Street Press
4 stars

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Everyone has foggy "senior moments": you sometimes mislay your mobile phone; you can't remember a password. But you can raise your game whatever your age, judging by the findings of neuroscience reporter Dan Hurley.

Researchers are shifting from seeing intelligence as a given like eye colour, to a fluid feature like muscular strength, he writes.

"It's a startling transformation in our understanding of a fundamental human trait: the capacity for rational thought - the ability to learn - and whether a strict limit is set for each of us on the day of our birth, or whether we can do something about it. The overturning of the pernicious dogma that our intelligence is unchangeable holds enormous implications for every level of society: young and old, rich and poor, genius and cognitively disabled alike," he writes.

expands on a popular 2012 feature Hurley wrote, which means it could easily be branded padded journalism, as critics will.

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Hurley throws himself into his project, becoming a human guinea pig. Among other exploits, he road-tests commercial brain-training programmes, learns to play the Renaissance lute, joins a "boot camp" exercise class, and tries meditation. Plus, he ensures he gets his regular coffee fix and wears a nicotine patch because, despite its murky image, nicotine is a proven cognitive enhancer, writes Hurley, who also undergoes trans-cranial stimulation. Yes, he gets his brain zapped in the name of science and entertainment.

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