A good think cultivates new brain cells, new brain connections – and a bigger brain. A good think also split the atom, put man on the moon and saw jam magically appear inside donuts.

But instead of contemplating the really big stuff, why not have some fun and take the BrainWeek challenge and compare your progress to the rest of the nation’s?

• Your free, brain-expanding exercise program.

  BrainWeek 2010’s finished. But you can still get your noggin signed-up for seven daily servings of quick and easy brain-growing exercises that you can access from the comfort of your computer.

  These could be anything from eating dark chocolate to saving the universe from a giant, flatulent inter-galactic greebly.

  Fancy a sneaky peek at what’s in store?

• See how you’re growing.

  Completing each exercise earns you 100 brain cells, which get added to your brain cell grand total on your very own page at brainweek.co.nz

• It’s gonna get interesting.

  What’s a nation-wide challenge without a few inter-regional, inter-island, inter-gender and inter-age-group face-offs?

  Here are a few races we’ll be having along the way…

  Snappers vs. Elders & Betters.

  Guys vs. Girls.

  Region vs. Region.

  Click here to see the results from 2010.

• What the experts say

  How does the brain grow new brain cells?

  It was long thought that we were born with only as many brain cells as we would ever have, and that the central nervous system did not regenerate itself after traumatic injury or cell death. Scientific research over the last 20 years, however, has shown that the adult brain can form new brain cells and that immature neural stem cells migrate to injured areas of the brain in order to repair it.

  If researchers can harness and enhance neurogenesis, it could lead to improved treatments for many disorders, diseases, or damage -- from Alzheimer's and epilepsy to stroke and traumatic brain injury -- and it can help keep our minds and memories sharp. Swedish neuroscientist Dr Peter Eriksson was one of the pioneers in this field. In 1998, he published a paper in the scientific journal Nature Medicine detailing how his research team had identified the creation of new brain cells, a process called neurogenesis – in the adult human brain. This was a significant break-through and neurogenesis is now one of the most exciting areas of neuroscience research.

  New neurons, also called neural stem cells, are continually born throughout adulthood in predominantly two regions of the brain:

  • The subventricular zone (SVZ) lining the lateral ventricles, where the new cells migrate to the olfactory bulb via the rostral migratory stream.
  • The subgranular zone (SGZ), part of the dentate gyrus of hippocampus.

  Many of these newborn cells die shortly after their birth, but a number of them become functionally integrated into the surrounding brain tissue.

  Many factors may increase or decrease rates of hippocampal neurogenesis. Exercise and an enriched environment promote their survival and successful integration into the existing hippocampus. Experiments have found that mice that used a running wheel had about twice as many new hippocampal neurons as mice that didn't exercise. Learning may still be necessary to preserve them, however.

  Other research has found that beta-endorphin, a mood-elevating chemical produced by the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, may play a role in the effects of exercise on the brain. Mice producing beta-endorphin and exercising showed an increase in the hippocampus in both the number of newborn cells and the rate at which those cells survived. However, mice that could not produce beta-endorphin but were still exercising showed no change in neurogenesis.

  On the other hand, adverse conditions such as chronic stress and aging can result in a decrease of proliferation.

  The Rostral Migratory Pathway

  In 2007, New Zealand and Swedish neuroscientists traced the pathway these adult neural stem cells travel along to repair the human brain, opening up another exciting new field of research that could potentially lead to treatments for many brain disorders. They also overturned the long-held theory that although an adult stem cell pathway existed in other mammals, it was not found in humans.

  The discovery was the culmination of eight years of collaborative study by teams led by Professor Richard Faull of the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Professor Peter Eriksson of the Arvid Carlsson Institute for Neuroscience, in Gothenburg, Sweden.

  Our Plastic Brain

  The discovery of neurogeneis led to the realization that the brain is highly plastic, that it , is not only able to create new neurons, but can modify networks of neurons in response to changing circumstances.

  This discoveries may pave the way for further understanding of how ageing and conditions like Alzheimer’s disease affect plasticity, and may help researchers find ways to preserve it.

  The brain consists of cells that are interconnected, and learning may happen through changing of the strength of the connections, by adding or removing connections, or by adding new cells. "Plasticity" relates to learning by adding or removing connections, or adding cells.

  However, studies determined that environmental changes could alter behavior and cognition by modifying connections between existing neurons and via neurogenesis in the hippocampus and other parts of the brain, including the cerebellum.

  Decades of research have now shown that substantial changes occur in the lowest neocortical processing areas, and that these changes can profoundly alter the pattern of neuronal activation in response to experience. According to the theory of neuroplasticity; thinking, learning, and acting actually change both the brain's physical structure (anatomy) and functional organization (physiology) from top to bottom.

  Click here for further information from the Neurological Foundation.