8 myths about the human brain

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Many people still believe that the brain is only 10% involved, alcohol kills neurons, and games to develop memory and logic really help you become smarter. It's time to get rid of these delusions.

1. We only use 10% of the brain

Neuroscientist Barry Gordon has provided several proofs of the fallacy of the ten percent theory.

Brain scans using MRI and positron emission tomography showed that there were no unused areas in it. In addition, numerous studies of the brain have not found areas that do not have a specific function.

The ten percent theory is contrary to the principles of evolution. The brain consumes too much energy for the body to allow it to do nothing. In full accordance with this, scientists observe the degeneration of unused brain cells.

2. People with a developed left hemisphere are more rational, and people with a developed right hemisphere are more creative

Scientists from the University of Utah have more than a thousand people and have not found evidence that they use predominantly the left or right hemisphere. All participants in the study, including scientists, equally involved both hemispheres of the brain.

However, the predominant use of one hemisphere to perform specific functions is still real. Scientists call this lateralization. For example, in right-handers, speech skills are controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. However, this does not mean that brilliant writers or orators used the left hemisphere more than the right, or that it had more neurons.

3. Alcohol kills brain cells

When ethanol enters the bloodstream, liver enzymes convert it into toxic acetaldehyde and then into acetate, which in turn is broken down into water and carbon dioxide and excreted from the body. However, the liver can only handle a certain amount of ethanol. If alcohol arrives faster than the liver can break it down, it continues to travel through the bloodstream until it is processed.

But when alcohol reaches the brain, the cells don't die. Instead, the rate of interaction between dendrites in the cerebellum is suppressed. Therefore, people in strong alcoholic intoxication move so awkwardly and cannot keep their balance.

Researchers at the University of Washington in St. Louis have come to the same conclusion. Ethanol does not kill neurons. Even with direct contact with them, it simply interferes with the transfer of information between nerve cells.

4. Nerve cells are not restored

For a long time, scientists believed that a person is born with a certain set of nerve cells and during life their number only decreases. But research has found that adults also develop new nerve cells.

Peter Eriksson of the Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and Fred H. Gage of the Salk Institute for Biological Research in California discovered neurogenesis in the human brain for 72 years.

Ericsson and colleagues used a chemical marker to identify new neurons. Since mature neurons are unable to divide, the appearance of new cells in the brain is due to the proliferation of stem cells and their development to mature neurons.

5. Certain areas of the brain perceive information only from specific senses

Previously, it was believed that there are certain zones in the brain, sharpened for specific tasks, for example, that the visual cortex exists exclusively for the perception of visual information. However, scientists have proven that the brain is very plastic, it can adapt and use zones without the receipt of information from the senses, supposedly intended for them.

For example, blind people, when reading Braille books, use the same areas of the brain that are involved during reading in sighted people. In addition, in blind people, the visual areas of the brain are activated through hearing. Perhaps that is why they have a sharper hearing.

Another proof of brain plasticity is phantom pain in amputated limbs. When a person loses an arm or a leg, the area of the brain responsible for sensitivity in this area ceases to be stimulated. Then the brain forms new connections between neurons in such a way that excitation in the zones responsible for motor functions and sensitivity is preserved in both hemispheres. Moreover, the dead zone is stimulated by signals from areas of the body adjacent to the amputated limb. Because of this, a person can clearly feel that they are touching their amputated fingers when in fact they are touching another part of the body.

Another example is when, as a result of a blow, neurons that send signals to the hand are turned off. With the help of therapy, it is possible to help neighboring areas of the brain take over the functions of the dead zone, and the person will be able to move the limb.

6. Brain Games Make You Smarter

Scientists at a research institute in Cambridge conducted a scientific experiment to prove the uselessness of popular games for brain development. During it, 11,430 participants played educational games several times a week that were supposed to improve memory, attention, visual-spatial orientation, planning and creation of cause-and-effect relationships.

After six weeks of such training, progress was seen in every game. However, there was no evidence that games helped develop these skills in general, as there was no improvement in new tasks that require trained cognitive functions to complete.

In other words, the participants simply practiced performing specific tasks, but did not become smarter, because when solving new tasks, their skills remained at the same level.

7. All brain functions decrease with age

Memory and logical thinking do deteriorate as we get older, but the same cannot be said for other brain functions. For example, making moral decisions, managing emotions, and reading social situations at 40-50 works much better than at 20 or 30.

That being said, there are ways to prevent age-related cognitive decline and keep your brain young and healthy.

8. We remember what happened

In fact, we remember a very limited number of visual images and sensations and are not able to capture the entire situation as a whole, even at the present moment. Remembering history for the first time, we miss even more details; the second time, we turn not to the past situation, but to our half-erased memory of it.

Thus, the further the event is, the less details we can remember until the story turns into a skeleton. Therefore, it cannot be said with certainty that we remember exactly what happened.