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Most people know that the brain controls your body, but there are actually many things about the human brain that you probably didn’t know. For example, did you know that your brain only weighs three pounds? Or that you can’t grow new brain cells? Here we have 10 mind-blowing facts about the human brain that you might not know. You may find these interesting and useful in your everyday life!
95% of your thoughts are not conscious
People tend to believe that they are aware of most of their thoughts. However, psychological research has revealed many sources of hidden bias and spontaneous influences on our minds that make us believe otherwise. For example, did you know that facts about the brain we are almost always unaware of about 95% of our thoughts? Many unconscious mental processes can influence how you perceive and act in your life, even though you might have no control over them. These autopilot functions don’t mean there’s anything wrong with you — they just show how complicated and mind-blowing the human brain is! One thing is for sure: if psychologists learned all these things about ourselves while we were still alive, imagine what they can learn after death.
The brain is plastic
The brain is in a constant state of using it or losing it. If you frequently engage in cognitive tasks (like reading and math), those skills are more likely to remain intact as you age. Meanwhile, parts of your brain that don’t get much use tend to deteriorate. Plasticity has both benefits and drawbacks; while some aspects of cognition may decline, other areas become stronger—like spatial navigation skills when you have to relearn your way around after a stroke. That’s why, if your brain function is impaired by an injury or disease like Parkinson’s, physical therapy can play an important role in rerouting neural activity and compensating for damage.
Stress can make you smarter
While it might sound counterintuitive, researchers have shown that stress can actually make you smarter by increasing your ability to pay attention and think logically. In a recent study, researchers found that students who experienced just a little bit of stress before taking an IQ test did better than those who were told they’d be fine and relaxed. The result? They were happier, too! So don’t worry—not only will you do well on your exam (and in life) if you just go in and take it, but happiness is likely to follow as well.
We only use a fraction of our grey matter
In a recent TED talk, neuroscientist Barry Smith presented some eye-opening facts about our brain. One of those tidbits was that for all our technological advances, we only use a small fraction of our grey matter. In fact, science has revealed that humans use only 2% of their brains. But just because we don’t use it much doesn’t mean it doesn’t have an important function; Smith explains that grey matter deals with functions like perception and behavior and it’s also responsible for emotions and impulses like anger, happiness, and hate. Don’t be fooled into thinking your brain is in control or that you should stop learning—you haven’t even hit your full potential yet!
Also Read : How to Find the Perfect Work-Life Balance
Music helps you remember things
Music is a great way to help you remember things, and it’s often enjoyable for no other reason than that. If you’re studying for a test or need to learn something for work, listening to music while you study can give your brain a little boost. This isn’t as crazy as it sounds; we often use music as a way to get through difficult tasks and pass time. Why not put it to good use in order to help make remembering things easier? If you want some extra motivation while studying, there are also apps that let you create playlists based on what you want to remember.
Intuition comes from our unconscious mind
We often think of our intuition as a force that comes from deep within our conscious mind, but it’s actually more accurate to say that it comes from our unconscious mind. As David Rock, director of neuroscience at Kinetic Concepts and author of Your Brain at Work says, Intuition is about unconscious processing in an area of your brain called the limbic system. So, remember, when you feel like something just comes to you or seems to make sense without much thought or analysis—there’s actually a lot going on under the surface. (But hey, if intuition can lead you towards success and happiness, who are we to complain?)
There are no right answers
The human brain can be understood in a lot of ways, and often as its own science. Our brains need to be healthy, but they’re always changing – facts about the brain never stay exactly true forever. Neuroplasticity means we’re constantly learning and changing throughout our lives, so what we think are hard truths might only apply now, today, at one specific point in time. Human knowledge is imperfect, and there’s always new research being done that can challenge established truths. People’s personalities are complex things to get a hold on; you might know someone well on Monday but suddenly find them very different come Wednesday because of something unexpected or unusual – it happens all the time when you learn about facts about the brain!
You can study while distracted, but…
When it comes to studying, people often think that taking a break will help them learn. However, studies show that more often than not, it doesn’t. In fact, taking breaks in between studying can actually harm your ability to retain information. This is because your brain has a very active recall cycle and if you are constantly distracted while trying to study, you won’t be able to hold onto as much information. When you take a study break, your brain will quickly put whatever facts you are trying to learn on hold while it thinks about something else. And then when you return back to those facts again, later on, they may not even be there!
The unconscious mind plays an important role in creativity
The unconscious mind plays an important role in creativity, acting as a vast reservoir of thoughts and memories that can be accessed during activities such as daydreaming. In fact, many major scientific discoveries are credited to ideas or inventions that were seen at one point or another by scientists. The unconscious mind also plays a large role in determining how we approach certain problems—for example, according to recent research published in science, when people are instructed to think outside of their normal way of approaching a problem they activate brain regions involved in generating diverse creative options. Essentially, we have within us all some pretty powerful creative tools—what matters is tapping into them and using them when necessary.
The placebo effect works even when people know it’s fake
Think it’s all in your head? In fact, when people know treatment is fake, their brains may react to it as if it were real. New research shows that even when people know they’re taking placebos, these fake treatments can elicit an actual physiological response from their bodies. Specifically, scientists found that when study participants took dummy pills for pain relief, their brains released endorphins. The placebo effect has been observed in studies for decades but researchers didn’t understand why people would respond to these fake treatments.
