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Q. Recently I heard you use the word adaption. Don’t you mean “adaptation?” By the way, I was spelling champion in high school.
A. Thank you for taking time to comment on the word adaption. It was an intentional use. Although its meaning is akin to adaptation (fitting in), the word adaption is brain-function terminology used by the researchers with whom I collaborate. It indicates the development and use of skills that are outside one’s innate giftedness and that require greater expenditures of energy.
It is my intent to use words accurately, even though there are times when I don't achieve that goal. The portion of my brain that functions most easily and energy-efficiently has little if anything to do with written or spoken language. Rather it processes information primarily through pictures and gestures. Consequently, in order to make a verbal presentation I am constantly accessing other portions of my brain that require much higher energy expenditures—perhaps as much as 100 times more energy second for second! This means that when the big-picture ideas are flying through my head, sometimes I struggle to find specific words with which to express them, never mind the grammar or syntax of those words!
By the way, congratulations on being spelling champion in high school. I hate to hazard a guess about how much energy my brain would expend just thinking about a spelling competition, much less trying to compete in one!
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Adaption and the Brain 
