The sweet spot is a yummy brain state defined by the Yerkes-Dodson Law, which states that brain performance tracks an upside-down U with your arousal level. When you're lethargic, activity spreads lazily throughout your brain like hot fudge running down a scoop of ice cream. The result: random, low-level thoughts. Not so good if you're trying to analyze a problem or make a presentation. Under stress, on the other hand, thoughts flee the high-falutin' prefrontal area and cower in the lower, emotional mid-brain, which is fine for fast reaction but hard on your focus and memory. The so-called sweet spot is -- you guessed it -- at the tip of the U halfway between lethargy and stress. This is where you learn, think, remember, and create best.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman worries that the high-pressure testing regime required by the No Child Left Behind Act will hurt kids' learning ability by causing classroom anxiety that frazzles students straight out of the "sweet spot" in their brains.
It's not just kids under the constant threat of life-wrecking tests who need to stay in the sweet spot. Even we who have made it past K-12 get stuck on one low end of the U or the other. Time to make a U-turn: Let music push you up the hill to the sweet spot. When you're on the left/lethargic side of the U, play music that's Energizing, Uplifting, or Focus (IQ-boosting or beta-wave) to perk up your thought control circuits. If instead you feel frazzled and your brain is raging away on the right side of the U, choose Relaxing or Focus (alpha-wave) music to mellow you out. When you hit the sweet spot, continue with something in between.
Some current picks:
- For moving from left to right, take a quick hit with the late great James Brown and I Feel Good, or settle in for the long haul with, perhaps, some trumpet concertos.
- For moving from right to left, The Charlie Haden Quartet West.
- For staying in the sweet spot, my perennial favorite -- Tune Your Brain with Mozart: Focus, on random play.
Tell your kids about the sweet spot. They might not know that studying to Eminem isn't always the thing.
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