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VERY BRIEF: A neuroscientist talks about the brain: how it makes decisions, how to improve its efficiency, how gadgets and stress affect it, how to learn new things in old age and avoid Alzheimer's disease.
The division of the retelling into chapters is conditional, and their titles do not correspond to the original.
The most basic tips
There are several things that can help your brain become more efficient in an instant.
Old dog and new tricks
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but neuroscientists disagree. It's all about suggestibility and those attitudes that were laid down in childhood by teachers, parents, and peers.
If your teacher made you believe that you are hopeless in mathematics, a self-fulfilling prophecy may be born: you will not be able to enjoy mathematics, you will stop coping with problems, your brain will stop straining and therefore adapting to them. The inevitable unsatisfactory results that follow will reinforce the false belief that you are incapable of understanding math.
So, the key word here is suggestion. “Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right anyway,” this thought by another American is much better suited to how our brains work.
It is true that the brain is especially adaptive in childhood. But it is not true that we then lose the ability to learn new "tricks". It all depends on how much time we spend learning a new skill. Children do it all the time, but we do it much less often.
Remember about the regime and that you can learn new things all your life. To experience the positive effects of neuroplasticity and continue to improve at something, you must do it regularly, intensely, and for a long time.
Is technology good or bad for the brain?
Technology itself is not bad for the brain. By transferring some of the tasks to external devices, we accelerate the pace and provoke the emergence of new tasks. The problem is that we have become constantly distracted by smartphone notifications.
A person has lived without gadgets for many thousands of years, despite this, today we check our smartphones every six and a half minutes. But the brain does not multitask, it is only able to switch due to concentration. Highly dependent multi-lancers have less control over their impulses and show lower scores on mobile intelligence tests than weakly dependent ones.
Immersion
Although you don't notice it, your brain is constantly working far beyond consciousness, asking questions, solving problems, going through thoughts. The trick is to catch the useful ideas floating around in your head.
The best brain state for creative thought is sleep, and the best time to catch creativity is naps. Dali understood this, waking himself up with the sound of a spoon falling out of his hand - and he was right. The chances of solving the problem will greatly increase if you start the work of the subconscious, feeding it with the necessary information.
The brain loves novelty and strives for it. If you need a creative approach, take a step back, drop stereotypes, do something different - preferably something unexpected, new and funny. At least hold a business meeting in an unfamiliar cafe.
To do or not to do
Everywhere you have to make a choice - important or small, simple or difficult. Moreover, most decisions are made without our participation, in the depths of the subconscious. Conscious reflection on any question, according to experts, can have a load of 40 bits, while the processing of information by the subconscious is estimated at 11 million bits. Logic often confirms our emotional choices only in retrospect.
The brain operates with neural estimates of the most likely outcomes based on recent and most striking experience. Trust your instincts in circumstances in which you are experienced enough, and make sure you are in a calm frame of mind. Do not trust your hunches in circumstances where you are inexperienced or where a particular choice will only give you an advantage in the short term.
By the way, the "good feeling" that you sometimes feel is pure anatomy: redistribution of blood flow from the stomach to the brain. The same goes for "butterflies in the stomach". This fluttering feeling indicates that your sympathetic nervous system is ready to work at full strength.
Cortisol! But in moderation ...
An unpleasant feeling of tension is created by the brain in response to the presence of stress hormones. Under stress, the hypothalamus sends a chemical message to the pituitary gland that releases another hormone into the circulatory system, which is directed to the adrenal glands. This triggers the release of cortisol, DHEA, and other stress hormones.
Cortisol has VIP access to every cell in the body. By manipulating genes, turning them off and on, he puts the body in a state that best suits a particular situation, ideally seeking to relieve stress.
Don't beat yourself up for being overexcited. Moderately unpleasant tension is helpful: it motivates us to take action, otherwise we wouldn't do anything at all. By releasing cortisol, you react not only to problems, but also to joyful moments. As soon as you start thinking about something serious, real or imagined, under your control or not, cortisol kicks in. This is why when you suddenly wake up in the middle of a nightmare, your heart beats fast and your breathing becomes fast and shallow.
Stress is a friend until it overrules your hospitality. Be a train driver, not a stress train passenger. Brake when needed. Rest is vital to the brain if you want to give it the chance to make the necessary "repairs".
The last hour before bed should be as calm as possible. Don't try to sleep, and if you're still awake, do something you hate doing. Make time to reboot during the day.
Nuns on the run
The structure of gray matter is such that as soon as our age reaches the middle of the third decade, the further path goes only down. The brain actually begins to shrink, but that doesn't mean that its functions are at their peak at age 25. Some cognitive abilities become more effective with age, despite structural deterioration.
This gradual degradation is inevitable and inevitable. If we lived to be 150, we would enjoy the symptoms of age-related cognitive decline as a result of the natural aging process of the brain. But even today, many suffer from this. The good news, however, is that many of the things you have to do to keep your brain fit for as long as possible are enjoyable entertainment: chess, tennis, dancing, reading. By eliminating saturated fats and toxic fumes from your life, you help blood vessels maintain their natural width and elasticity - which means that the risk of stroke is reduced.
Build your cognitive reserve. In 1986, the US National Institute on Aging conducted a study of 678 Roman Catholic nuns. They were monitored over the years to better understand the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease. They were tested to assess cognitive abilities, such as how many words from a list they can remember or how many animals they can name per minute.
The idea to study exactly the nuns came to the scientists' minds due to the fact that their life experiences are usually the same. Therefore, any difference in susceptibility to age-related mental problems could be associated with natural characteristics (genes), and not with life experience.
When nuns died, their brains were sacrificed for science. Not surprisingly, sisters with Alzheimer's disease were found to have many of the changes that are characteristic of the disease. But surprisingly, the same changes were found in the brain tissue of nuns who had never suffered from Alzheimer's disease. This proves that humans can function normally despite the damage caused by this disease.
An analysis of the differences between those who had and did not have severe symptoms of Alzheimer's disease showed that the nuns' writing and speaking style (the researchers examined the essays they wrote while taking monasticism at twenty) were relevant to the outcome. Nuns, whose writings contained several different concepts, were significantly less susceptible to the symptoms of Alzheimer's many decades later! Another key factor was the level of physical and mental activity before and after performing daily chores. Those who read eagerly and a lot and found time for hobbies functioned perfectly well at ninety years old.
Believe or See?
We are very dependent on the feedback we received as a child. Unfortunately, many people have suppressed faith in themselves.
The brain is constantly re-creating reality, filtering it in accordance with our attitudes. As soon as you start to believe in something, the confirmation bias mechanism kicks in. As a result, the brain accepts those facts that agree with existing beliefs, and rejects those that do not fit them.
In other words, if the teacher told you that in mathematics you are a complete zero, and you decided that you are, then you will with enviable persistence believe all the comments confirming this statement, and reject those that will refute it. This is bad news.
But the good one: self-hypnosis also works in a positive way. You don't need to look at what others have achieved to realize that they can be achieved.
Everyone holds the key to the world's fastest and most efficient engine. It remains to pick up the control lever.
The division of the retelling into chapters is conditional, and their titles do not correspond to the original.
The most basic tips
There are several things that can help your brain become more efficient in an instant.
- Drink plenty of water.
- At least 20 minutes of physical activity every day - among other things, they stimulate the growth of new cells in the hippocampus.
- Control your cortisol levels (this hormone, released in response to daily problems, is responsible for making you feel stressed; cortisol spurs the brain, which is naturally very lazy).
- Bathe in the sun for at least 15 minutes daily.
- Drink caffeine. In moderation, it is (after all) good for the brain.
Old dog and new tricks
They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, but neuroscientists disagree. It's all about suggestibility and those attitudes that were laid down in childhood by teachers, parents, and peers.
If your teacher made you believe that you are hopeless in mathematics, a self-fulfilling prophecy may be born: you will not be able to enjoy mathematics, you will stop coping with problems, your brain will stop straining and therefore adapting to them. The inevitable unsatisfactory results that follow will reinforce the false belief that you are incapable of understanding math.
So, the key word here is suggestion. “Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're right anyway,” this thought by another American is much better suited to how our brains work.
It is true that the brain is especially adaptive in childhood. But it is not true that we then lose the ability to learn new "tricks". It all depends on how much time we spend learning a new skill. Children do it all the time, but we do it much less often.
Remember about the regime and that you can learn new things all your life. To experience the positive effects of neuroplasticity and continue to improve at something, you must do it regularly, intensely, and for a long time.
Is technology good or bad for the brain?
Technology itself is not bad for the brain. By transferring some of the tasks to external devices, we accelerate the pace and provoke the emergence of new tasks. The problem is that we have become constantly distracted by smartphone notifications.
A person has lived without gadgets for many thousands of years, despite this, today we check our smartphones every six and a half minutes. But the brain does not multitask, it is only able to switch due to concentration. Highly dependent multi-lancers have less control over their impulses and show lower scores on mobile intelligence tests than weakly dependent ones.
Immersion
Although you don't notice it, your brain is constantly working far beyond consciousness, asking questions, solving problems, going through thoughts. The trick is to catch the useful ideas floating around in your head.
The best brain state for creative thought is sleep, and the best time to catch creativity is naps. Dali understood this, waking himself up with the sound of a spoon falling out of his hand - and he was right. The chances of solving the problem will greatly increase if you start the work of the subconscious, feeding it with the necessary information.
The brain loves novelty and strives for it. If you need a creative approach, take a step back, drop stereotypes, do something different - preferably something unexpected, new and funny. At least hold a business meeting in an unfamiliar cafe.
To do or not to do
Everywhere you have to make a choice - important or small, simple or difficult. Moreover, most decisions are made without our participation, in the depths of the subconscious. Conscious reflection on any question, according to experts, can have a load of 40 bits, while the processing of information by the subconscious is estimated at 11 million bits. Logic often confirms our emotional choices only in retrospect.
The brain operates with neural estimates of the most likely outcomes based on recent and most striking experience. Trust your instincts in circumstances in which you are experienced enough, and make sure you are in a calm frame of mind. Do not trust your hunches in circumstances where you are inexperienced or where a particular choice will only give you an advantage in the short term.
By the way, the "good feeling" that you sometimes feel is pure anatomy: redistribution of blood flow from the stomach to the brain. The same goes for "butterflies in the stomach". This fluttering feeling indicates that your sympathetic nervous system is ready to work at full strength.
Cortisol! But in moderation ...
An unpleasant feeling of tension is created by the brain in response to the presence of stress hormones. Under stress, the hypothalamus sends a chemical message to the pituitary gland that releases another hormone into the circulatory system, which is directed to the adrenal glands. This triggers the release of cortisol, DHEA, and other stress hormones.
Cortisol has VIP access to every cell in the body. By manipulating genes, turning them off and on, he puts the body in a state that best suits a particular situation, ideally seeking to relieve stress.
Don't beat yourself up for being overexcited. Moderately unpleasant tension is helpful: it motivates us to take action, otherwise we wouldn't do anything at all. By releasing cortisol, you react not only to problems, but also to joyful moments. As soon as you start thinking about something serious, real or imagined, under your control or not, cortisol kicks in. This is why when you suddenly wake up in the middle of a nightmare, your heart beats fast and your breathing becomes fast and shallow.
Stress is a friend until it overrules your hospitality. Be a train driver, not a stress train passenger. Brake when needed. Rest is vital to the brain if you want to give it the chance to make the necessary "repairs".
The last hour before bed should be as calm as possible. Don't try to sleep, and if you're still awake, do something you hate doing. Make time to reboot during the day.
Nuns on the run
The structure of gray matter is such that as soon as our age reaches the middle of the third decade, the further path goes only down. The brain actually begins to shrink, but that doesn't mean that its functions are at their peak at age 25. Some cognitive abilities become more effective with age, despite structural deterioration.
This gradual degradation is inevitable and inevitable. If we lived to be 150, we would enjoy the symptoms of age-related cognitive decline as a result of the natural aging process of the brain. But even today, many suffer from this. The good news, however, is that many of the things you have to do to keep your brain fit for as long as possible are enjoyable entertainment: chess, tennis, dancing, reading. By eliminating saturated fats and toxic fumes from your life, you help blood vessels maintain their natural width and elasticity - which means that the risk of stroke is reduced.
Build your cognitive reserve. In 1986, the US National Institute on Aging conducted a study of 678 Roman Catholic nuns. They were monitored over the years to better understand the characteristics of Alzheimer's disease. They were tested to assess cognitive abilities, such as how many words from a list they can remember or how many animals they can name per minute.
The idea to study exactly the nuns came to the scientists' minds due to the fact that their life experiences are usually the same. Therefore, any difference in susceptibility to age-related mental problems could be associated with natural characteristics (genes), and not with life experience.
When nuns died, their brains were sacrificed for science. Not surprisingly, sisters with Alzheimer's disease were found to have many of the changes that are characteristic of the disease. But surprisingly, the same changes were found in the brain tissue of nuns who had never suffered from Alzheimer's disease. This proves that humans can function normally despite the damage caused by this disease.
An analysis of the differences between those who had and did not have severe symptoms of Alzheimer's disease showed that the nuns' writing and speaking style (the researchers examined the essays they wrote while taking monasticism at twenty) were relevant to the outcome. Nuns, whose writings contained several different concepts, were significantly less susceptible to the symptoms of Alzheimer's many decades later! Another key factor was the level of physical and mental activity before and after performing daily chores. Those who read eagerly and a lot and found time for hobbies functioned perfectly well at ninety years old.
Believe or See?
We are very dependent on the feedback we received as a child. Unfortunately, many people have suppressed faith in themselves.
The brain is constantly re-creating reality, filtering it in accordance with our attitudes. As soon as you start to believe in something, the confirmation bias mechanism kicks in. As a result, the brain accepts those facts that agree with existing beliefs, and rejects those that do not fit them.
In other words, if the teacher told you that in mathematics you are a complete zero, and you decided that you are, then you will with enviable persistence believe all the comments confirming this statement, and reject those that will refute it. This is bad news.
But the good one: self-hypnosis also works in a positive way. You don't need to look at what others have achieved to realize that they can be achieved.
Everyone holds the key to the world's fastest and most efficient engine. It remains to pick up the control lever.
