How the brain works and why fatigue stimulates creative thinking

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

We often think that we know everything about our body, that we have studied all its capabilities and features. But each time, new research results convince the opposite. Fatigue stimulates creativity, temperament depends on neurotransmitters, time can be stretched by learning new things … Nine facts about the human brain will help organize your studies and work, or just get to know yourself better.

Fatigue stimulates creative thinking

Each person has their own rhythm of life and biological clock of activity. The brain of a lark works better in the morning: at this time, such people feel fresher and more vigorous, perceive and process information well, solve complex problems that require analysis and building logical connections. In owls, the time of activity comes later.

But when it comes to creative work, the search for new ideas and unconventional approaches, another principle comes into play: brain fatigue becomes an advantage. It sounds strange and implausible, but there is a logical explanation for this.

When you get tired, your focus on a specific task decreases and distracting thoughts are less likely to be eliminated. In addition, you have less memory of the established connections between concepts.

This time is great for creativity: you forget hackneyed schemes, various ideas swarm in your head that are not directly related to the project, but can lead to a valuable thought.

Without concentrating on a specific problem, we cover a wider range of ideas, see more alternatives and development options. So it turns out that a tired brain is very capable of giving out creative ideas.

Stress changes the size of the brain

Stress is very bad for your health. Not only that, it directly affects brain function, and research has shown that in some cases, critical situations can even reduce its size.

One of the experiments was carried out on baby monkeys. Objective - To study the impact of stress on the development of babies and their mental health. Half of the monkeys were given to the care of peers for six months, and the other was left with their mothers. The cubs were then returned to normal social groups and their brains were scanned a few months later.

In monkeys that were taken away from their mothers, the areas of the brain associated with stress remained enlarged even after returning to normal social groups.

More research is needed to make the exact conclusions, but it's scary to think that stress can alter the size and function of the brain for so long.

Another study showed that rats under constant stress reduced the size of the hippocampus. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for emotions and memory, or rather, for the transfer of information from short-term memory to long-term memory.

Scientists have already investigated the relationship between the size of the hippocampus and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but it was still not clear whether it really decreases with stress, or whether people prone to PTSD have a small hippocampus right away. The rat experiment was proof that overexcitation actually changes the size of the brain.

The brain is practically incapable of multitasking

To be productive, it is often advised to do several tasks at the same time, but the brain can hardly cope with it. We think we are doing several things at the same time, but in reality, the brain just quickly switches from one to another.

Research shows that solving many problems at the same time increases the probability of error by 50%, that is, exactly half. The speed of completing tasks drops by about half.

We share our brain resources, pay less attention to each task, and perform significantly worse on each of them. The brain, instead of wasting resources on solving the problem, wastes them on painful switching from one to the other.

French researchers studied how the brain responds to multitasking. When the participants in the experiment received the second task, each hemisphere began to work independently of the other. As a result, overloading affected efficiency: the brain could not perform tasks at full capacity. When the third task was added, the results became even worse: the participants forgot about one of the tasks and made more mistakes.

Sleep improves brain performance

Everyone knows that sleep is good for the brain, but what about a light nap during the day? It turns out that it is really very useful and helps to pump some intelligence abilities.

Improving memory

Participants in one study were required to memorize pictures. After the guys and girls remembered what they could, they were given a 40 minute break before checking. One group was dozing at this time, the other was awake.

After the break, the scientists checked the participants, and it turned out that the group that was asleep retained significantly more images in their consciousness. On average, the rested participants memorized 85% of the information, while the second group - only 60%.

Research shows that when information first enters the brain, it is contained in the hippocampus, where all memories are very short-lived, especially when new information continues to flow. During sleep, memories are transferred to a new cortex (neocortex), which can be called permanent storage. There information is reliably protected from "overwriting".

Improving learning ability

A short nap also helps clear information from the areas of the brain that temporarily contain it. Once cleared, the brain is ready for perception again.

Recent studies have shown that during sleep, the right hemisphere is more active than the left. And this is despite the fact that 95% of people are right-handed, and in this case, the left hemisphere of the brain is better developed.

The author of the study, Andrei Medvedev, suggested that during sleep, the right hemisphere "stands guard." Thus, while the left is resting, the right clears short-term memory, pushing the memories into long-term storage.

Vision is the most important feeling

A person receives most of the information about the world through sight. If you listen to any information, after three days you will remember about 10% of it, and if you add an image to this, you will remember 65%.

Pictures are perceived much better than text, because text for our brain is a lot of small pictures from which we need to get meaning. It takes longer and the information is less memorable.

We are so accustomed to trusting our eyes that even the best tasters define tinted white wine as red just because they can see its color.

The picture below highlights the areas that are associated with vision and shows which parts of the brain it affects. Compared to other senses, the difference is enormous.

Temperament depends on the characteristics of the brain

Scientists have found that a person's personality type and temperament depends on his genetic predisposition to the production of neurotransmitters. Extroverts are less susceptible to dopamine, a powerful neurotransmitter that is associated with cognition, movement, and attention and brings happiness to a person.

Extroverts need more dopamine, and for its production they need an additional stimulant - adrenaline. That is, the more new impressions, communication, risk an extrovert has, the more dopamine his body produces and the happier a person becomes.

In contrast, introverts are more sensitive to dopamine, and acetylcholine is their main neurotransmitter. It is associated with attention and cognition, and is responsible for long-term memory. It also helps us dream. Introverts should have high levels of acetylcholine to feel good and calm.

By isolating any of the neurotransmitters, the brain uses the autonomic nervous system, which connects the brain to the body and directly influences decisions and reactions to the surrounding world.

It can be assumed that if you artificially increase the dose of dopamine, for example by doing extreme sports, or, conversely, the amount of acetylcholine due to meditation, you can change your temperament.

Errors cause sympathy

It seems that mistakes make us prettier, as evidenced by the so-called failure effect.

People who never make mistakes are perceived worse than those who sometimes make mistakes. Mistakes make you more alive and human, remove the stressful atmosphere of invincibility.

This theory was tested by psychologist Elliot Aronson. Participants in the experiment were given a recording of a quiz, during which one of the connoisseurs dropped a cup of coffee. As a result, it turned out that the sympathies of the majority of the respondents were on the side of the awkward person. So minor mistakes can be helpful: they win people over to you.

Exercise reboots the brain

Of course, exercise is good for the body, but what about the brain? Obviously, there is a connection between training and mental alertness. In addition, happiness and physical activity are also linked.

People who go in for sports are superior to passive couch potatoes in all criteria of brain function: memory, thinking, attention, the ability to solve problems and problems.

In terms of happiness, exercise triggers the release of endorphins. The brain perceives exercise as a dangerous situation and, in order to protect itself, produces endorphins that help to cope with pain, if any, and if not, bring a feeling of happiness.

To protect the neurons in the brain, the body also synthesizes a protein called BDNF (Brain Neurotrophic Factor). It not only protects but also restores neurons, which works like a reboot. Therefore, after training, you feel at ease and see problems from a different angle.

You can slow down time by doing something new

When information is received by the brain, it doesn’t necessarily come in the right order, and before we can understand it, the brain has to present it in the right way. If familiar information comes to you, it does not take much time to process it, but if you are doing something new and unfamiliar, the brain processes unusual data for a long time and arranges them in the right order.

That is, when you learn something new, time slows down exactly as much as your brain needs to adapt.

Another interesting fact: time is cognized not by one area of the brain, but by different ones.

Each of the five senses of a person has its own area, and many are involved in the perception of time.

There is another way to slow down time - to concentrate. For example, if you listen to pleasant music that gives you real pleasure, time stretches out. Extreme concentration is also present in life-threatening situations, and in the same way time moves much slower in them than in a calm, relaxed state.