Making Mental Might: How to Look Ten Times Smarter Than You Are

Doctor Bernard Patten―erstwhile Memory Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, founder of the first memory clinic at the Neurological Institute of New York, and author of scientific papers on memory therapy and memory problems―wants to help you to a better mind, a better memory, and, consequently, a better life.

Memory degradation happens to everyone. Even people in good health forget where they park their cars or leave their reading glasses. Some draw a blank entering their PIN. Is the stove off? Cat fed? Door locked? Did you take your medication? Not sure? How come? These memory problems only get worse as we get older unless we employ mental exercises to improve memory now.

Mountains of scientific research prove that mental exercise benefits the brain as much as physical exercise benefits the body. Mental gymnastics boosts brainpower, augments memory, and (in some cases) actually increases brain size. It can help prevent dementia, mental decline, and the much-feared Alzheimer's disease.

Making Mental Might does not aim to increase your IQ or show you how to get smarter. It offers the proper mental training to look, sound, and perform worlds better. These techniques have helped hundreds of students at Rice University's School of Continuing Studies under Doctor Patten improve their working memory. They can do the same for you.

Dr. Bernard M. Patten, an instructor of memory, neuroscience, and logic at Rice University and the Women's Institute of Houston, has been featured on 60 Minutes, Frontline, TF-1, BBC TV, German National TV, and Australian National TV. Dr. Patten holds an A.B. from Columbia College summa cum laude and graduated second in his class from Columbia's Medical School with an MD. He interned at Cornell and did his Neurology training at the Neurological Institute of New York, where he was Chief Resident Neurologist. Before acting as the assistant chief of medical neurology at the National Institutes of Health, he was the Memory Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and set up the first memory clinic and memory consultation service in America. He has also taught as a visiting professor at the University of Montpellier in France, the Charcot Clinic in Paris, and the Karolinska in Stockholm. As the vice chair of the Department of Neurology and chief of nerve and muscle diseases at Baylor College of Medicine, Dr. Patten published over 100 scientific papers. He is the author of eight non-medical books in print, and his most notable professional accomplishments include being part of the team of physicians who discovered the L-DOPA treatment for Parkinson's Disease.