5 Myths About The Brain That You Thought Were True

Since an idea has become ingrained in our society, it is very difficult to “uninstall” it from our brain if we have always believed in it. The brain is an organ that has many misconceptions associated with it. Social networks are full of “myths about the brain”, and we often share these “assumed facts” as we meet friends and family to showcase our obvious wisdom.

The philosopher Elena Pasquinelli has devoted an entire book to talking about these myths about the brain *. Science has become very popular, and these days we have information to access about just about everything. Elena believes that the combination of science and society still leaves much to be desired. Sometimes there are suspicions and total mistrust among people and other times you completely believe what has been said. Regardless of the cases, the human brain seems to be at the center of many controversies.

Let us now look at these 5 myths.

We only use 10% of our brain

It is true that people sometimes act as if they had no brain at all, but this is one of the most enduring myths about the brain. No one knows where this myth came from.

Current technology for taking neuroimages has shown that we use the whole brain. Each part of it is activated in some way by many of the common tasks we perform. It is true that we use our brain in different ways and that certain cognitive abilities are more developed in some than in others. However, this has nothing to do with how much your brain is used at any given time. This myth is total nonsense.

Myths about the brain: we have a left brain and a right brain

This is one of the most well-known myths, which is often illustrated by strange diagrams. In fact, this myth has penetrated society itself and a large part of the scientific world as well. It may be the myth that has been written about the most, even though it is not true. We can soon see that it is nonsense when we see how the whole brain is activated in tasks that are said to occur on one side or the other.

It is true that some functions are more dependent on one hemisphere of the brain than the other, but the connection between the two “parts” of the brain is so versatile and powerful that they cannot function by themselves. The use of one or the other hemisphere does not determine learning styles or personality, because we never use just one.

Women’s brains are different from men’s

The brains of men and women have anatomical differences. However, this can occur with other organs and properties, such as height. A recently published study has shown that men seem to have more connections in certain parts of a hemisphere while women have more connections between both hemispheres.

These results use statistical methods where the interpretation of the results tends to be biased, and the most important thing seems to be to write an eye-catching headline. These are myths about whether the brain can be easily spread. The differences in this study do not establish that men and women have different brains. However, it shows that men and women have different types of connections. These connections will also depend on the activities that each person performs, and that more than gender.

Myths about the brain: thanks to the neuronal plasticity, anything is possible

Our brain is dynamic and very sensitive to the activities we spend the most time on. A study conducted among taxi drivers in London showed that their brains changed and increased in size in the areas that control spatial orientation.

This plasticity also has certain limitations. We can get close to these limitations if we train more in our area, regardless of whether you are a taxi driver in a big city or work in another profession. Plasticity can improve some parts of our brain while holding back others.

This will depend on our activity, but also the circumstances, stimuli and the person’s general physical and cognitive state. It ends with each person’s brain having its own architecture, which is shaped according to who the person is and what he or she does. However, this architecture also gives us limitations that we have to live with.

We can improve our brain capacity with “brain training”

Here, however, we have a nice balancing act. Any memory training, quick calculations or activity that improves our attention has a direct positive effect. But is this improvement really a result of exercise or simply a placebo effect associated with the activity you have just performed?

This question becomes even more important as we keep in mind that the effect usually does not last much longer after the activity has been completed. The question we have before us now is: are our skills improving or are our strategies improving?

For example, if you play chess for a while, it is quite normal to improve your strategy over time. You will become more experienced and will learn which strategies are good and which are not. However, does the fact that our memory has more information about chess that we have improve this psychological process? With that said, it seems that brain aging can be slowed down with the help of cognitive training.

Proven results in dementia

There are also proven results in people with degenerative diseases, such as dementia. It also seems to be the case that exercise is very beneficial if you want to regain a basic level again after a period of activity, regardless of subject. If you go beyond these logical conclusions, you can somehow question the results.

In this article, we have addressed some of the most common myths about the brain. However, there are many others that we have not addressed, and others that we have not yet discovered to be myths because science has not yet found a way to define them. The study of the brain is in any case an interesting subject because it is the most amazing and perfect technology we have ever known.

* If you know French, you can read about this in “Mon cerveau, ces héros, mythes et ráéalité”, published by Le Pommier.