After watching this, your brain will not be the same – This is an interesting story from Dr. Lara Boyd’s TEDxVancouver talk in 2015, which is about the brain and learning. Many things that we used to think and understand about the brain may have to change after reading this article.
People often question their own and others’ abilities. Comparison is inevitable because differences are everywhere, whether they are compared to better people or worse people. In these comparisons, we ask the same question: “Why are we different?”
In the society we live in, there are many different types of people, and there are so many examples for us to think about. Many questions arise in our minds, such as: Why are some people so good at certain sports? Why are some people so good at drawing? Why can some people speak many languages?
Everything is a specific ability that comes from each person’s different learning. Even if a group of children receive the same teaching, are in the same environment, and are raised the same, what each child can absorb will still be different.
“Why do some people learn things more easily than others?”
Dr. Lara Boyd, a brain researcher at the University of British Columbia, said that what made her able to step into this work and become a brain researcher as she is today is because these questions have always been in her mind, such as why do people who receive everything the same learn differently? If it is like this, it is not too cruel to those who have difficulty learning and are not good at learning like others.
“The brain changes as rapidly as the breath.”
As a result of her brain studies, Dr. Lara discovered that what we have always understood about the brain is incorrect and many things we have misunderstood are incorrect. In fact, the human brain never stops working as we used to think. For example, we often think that after adolescence, our brain cannot develop or change any more. This is a misunderstanding. Or we often misunderstand that when we sleep or do nothing, our brain will also rest or not work. This understanding is far from the truth. Because the truth has proven that our brain works all the time and the brain changes all the time as well.
“The most interesting thing I’ve learned from studying the brain is that every time we learn something new, our brain changes and develops.”
With today’s technology, we find that our brains will change and develop only when we start learning new things. This is a process called “brain flexibility and adaptation” because in the past, we often misunderstood that after the age of 25, our brains would start to change in a negative way only. Because we misunderstood that brain cells would decrease as we get older. But from studies and research, it was found that age has nothing to do with changes in brain cells at all.
“Every behavior we do can change our brain.”
The fact that the study also found that brain changes, whether negative or positive, do not depend on age, but on the behaviors that each person chooses to do, and every behavior that we do will contribute to changing our brains all the time as well.
3 Processes That Can Help Change and Develop Our Brains for Better Learning
1. Chemicals : Our brains exchange chemical signals between brains. Learning actions and responses intensify these chemicals. Because learning occurs quickly and is over, learned abilities and movements are stored in short-term memory only.
2. Changes in brain structure : Because chemicals help with perception and changes in the brain will have an effect only in the short term, real changes in the brain require time to help, so they will result in long-term learning.
For example, today we learn how to play the piano. We feel that we can play a song well, catch the rhythm, and do it perfectly. But it turns out that the next day, when we play it again, we can’t do it as well as the first day, even though we played it perfectly yesterday.
This can happen because playing the piano on the first day is just a short-term learning. The next day, we have to refresh it a bit. If we want it to be a long-term learning, we have to take time to learn, practice so that the brain can remember and turn that knowledge into a long-term skill that will stay with us forever.
3. Functional Change : Our brains have different areas for different types of learning. When we learn something, that part of the brain is activated. When it is activated repeatedly through repeated learning, that part of the brain becomes more sensitive and easier to activate. This will become our long-term ability.
Most brain plasticity and change is not caused by one of these three things, but rather by a combination of chemical, structural, and functional changes. When all of these things happen together, they enhance our learning and change our brain over time.
What is the brain’s plasticity and changeability?
Dr. Lara’s study found that healing the brain after a stroke is very difficult. Even though this disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, what the medical community can do is not cure the symptoms, but only alleviate the symptoms.
“Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability in adults.”
Stroke occurs when a blood vessel in the brain is suddenly blocked or ruptured, causing the blood flow to that part of the brain to stop, resulting in brain tissue being destroyed due to lack of oxygen and nutrients.
Treatment of cerebrovascular disease has become an unsolvable problem. Although studies have shown that our brains can change all the time, we have not found a way to cure cerebrovascular disease patients from long-term disability. Today, there are fewer and fewer people who are suffering from this disease, and it causes more and more long-term disability.
“The best driver of brain change is our behavior.”
It is clear from the study that behavior is the best way to change the brain, but it also depends on the amount of behavior and the amount of practice. Once learned, there must be repetition of what has been learned in order to create changes in the brain. And this is what we often do in stroke patients who have long-term disabilities.
“There is a great deal of variation in the plasticity and change in the human brain.”
Studies on how to treat stroke patients often focus on reducing the variety of brain changes. But Dr. Lara has a different perspective and chooses to study the variety of brain changes in each person instead. Because each person’s brain is different and has a unique learning pattern.
“Because there is no medicine in this world that can change the brain when taken.”
Dr. Lara said that from studying stroke treatment, she found that one of the best ways to heal is to use behavioral therapy. The more difficult, the more struggling, the better the brain changes because no medicine in the world can change our brains. It is similar to how we learn. We will remember learning things better when we have to be patient and try very hard to learn them.
“No learning model can make everyone understand the same.”
This is another reason why no matter how much the education reform is, it still doesn’t work for every child. Some children do well in the old school, some children do well in the new school. It’s because each person’s brain is different, so the learning methods that work for them are different.
“Specific learning styles benefit the brain both as a learner and as a provider.”
Since each person’s brain is specific, just like their face and appearance are different, the best learning must be specific to suit each person’s brain as well. For example, some people learn languages well by starting with speaking, some people may have to start with reading, or some people may start by listening, etc.
“We have to find the best way and what we can learn.”
Since behavior is the answer to change and develop the brain, we must find the best methods and things that we can learn to select behaviors to change the brain to produce effective results. And when we find them, we must not forget to practice and do those behaviors repeatedly so that those learnings do not become just short-term learning, but we must make them long-term learning that will become abilities that will stay with us for life.
Conclusion
After everyone finishes reading this article, the admin would like us to stop asking why we are not as good as others? Or why do other people learn better than us? But please change your mindset that those people may be lucky enough to find their own way to learn. We can all succeed in learning. We just have to find a way that works for us and practice it all the time. Because everyone’s brain has its own unique abilities. And because of this, it is special. We should be proud of ourselves and find our own way.
“Everything we do, everything we encounter, everything we experience changes our brain.”
After watching this, your brain will not be the same | Lara Boyd
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