5 Brain myths debunked
- We use only 10% of our brains. PET or fMRI scans show that much of the brain is engaged even during simple tasks. But there's also the fact that highly motivated people score higher on IQ tests, which suggests that we don’t always exercise our minds at 💯% capacity.
- “Flashbulb memories” are precise, detailed and persistent. Memories that feel as vivid and accurate as a 📸, remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, who we were with, what we saw or heard. But the memories decay over time and without being aware of it, we forget important details and add incorrect ones.
- It’s all downhill after 40 (or 50 or 60 or 70). Plenty of mental skills improve with age. Like vocabulary, tests of social wisdom, regulating emotions and finding meaning in life.
- We have five senses. Sight, smell, 👂🏼, taste and touch are the big ones. But we also have proprioception, nociception, sense of balance, sense of body temperature, acceleration and the passage of time.
- Brains are like computers. The brain doesn’t have a set memory capacity, doesn’t compute the way a 💻 does, & even basic visual perception isn’t passive inputs because we actively interpret, anticipate & pay attention to different elements of the visual world.
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By focusing attention on and repeatedly practicing new, desirable behaviors, we can redirect our brains' chemical, hormonal, and physical resources to create new pathways. The old ones, meanwhile, wither from lack of use.
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