neuroscientist, had arrived from the University of Illinois, where he
directs the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.
In his early sixties, he’s clearly the senior yoda of the group. He
greeted us and dove into the pad se. Smallish and solid, he’s a man
who gives the impression of intensity in all pursuits. “He talks at
squirrel speed,” one of the others had warned me. At one time or
another, nearly everyone here (except Gazzaley) studied with him or
worked in his lab. Strayer was his first doctoral student, back when
they were studying pilot error. Kramer has always been fascinated by
how humans learn skills and what makes them screw up. He’s
consulted for the military, NASA and the Federal Aviation
Administration, among others.
But what Kramer is really known for—indeed, famous for, in the
world of neuroscience—is showing how exercise protects the brain
from cognitive decline in aging. Among his dozens of influential
studies are those showing that exercise causes new brain cells to
grow, especially in areas related to memory, executive function and
spatial perception. Before Kramer’s work, no one really believed
physical activity could lead to such clear and important effects. Now
people everywhere are routinely told that exercise is the single best
way to prevent aging-related cognitive decline. Kramer’s studies
helped change the way the profession and society think. They are
what scientists dream of.
“In 1992, the exercise/brain literature was where the nature
literature is now,” said Strayer. “My goal in the next ten years is to do
for nature what he did on exercise and cognition.”
If you draw a Venn diagram of the scientific interests of everyone
around the vinyl-draped dinner table, the circles would overlap over
one central theme: attention. Other scientists studying the effects of
nature may be interested in other things, like emotional regulation, or
stress, or the immune system. But in Team Moab’s worldview,
attention is the lingua franca from which all mental states spring. I’d