Is it possible to change our brain? Can we educate and re-educate him? Brain It is the organ of thought, where all our behavior is managed. We Allows you to acquire new knowledge and experiences and give them meaning, especially emotional, which modifies our attitude and relationship towards the environment and ourselves. But our mind and brain They are not stable, May they always continue to grow and expand horizons.
This is how he explains to us in his new book educate your brain (Editorial Grijalbo), David Bueno, Doctor in Biology and expert in Neuroeducation and author of several successful books, such as teenage brainWhich was awarded the 2023 Zimbelli Prize in Italy.
,“The only one who is old is the one who does not want to learn,” is the phrase your grandparents used to repeat. That’s how you express it in your new book. Can we continue learning into adulthood and old age? What obstacles does our brain face in these stages?
-Of course, in adulthood and old age, we can continue to learn until we develop neurodegenerative disease. So this is a serious obstacle for our brain. Still, it is not as easy as childhood and youth; We learn because the brain is plastic, because it is flexible, because it is making new neural connections.
Everything we learn and remember is stored in the connections made between neurons in our brain. This neuronal plasticity is maximum during childhood, becomes very high again during adolescence and then decreases. Usually we compensate with our experience, the more things a person knows, the easier it is to learn to find the right place for them.
We have more resources for learning when we are adults than when we are children. We can always learn, and we can always acquire and improve our skills.
,But we think that when we complete our studies or grow up, we no longer have the capacity to acquire new knowledge and skills. Is this really the case or do we set limits for ourselves?
-As we grow up and become adults, we gradually lose the ability to learn as our brain loses flexibility. In any situation, our brain remains the same.
But what happens? He Sometimes we set limits, thinking that we are adults, that we no longer need to learn, when it turns out that learning is a central aspect in everyone’s life, and this forces us to set limits for ourselves. It can be like this, or simply, when someone has repeated to us, or we repeat to ourselves, “I am not capable”, “It will not be good for me”…,
-We can be our own worst enemy…
-Our brain is very obedient, and if we repeat to it what we can’t do, we won’t actually be able to do it. But not because we don’t have the ability to do so, but because our mind will and will not listen to us.
But going back to what you were saying about completing your studies… the more knowledge There is a person, it’s just as easy to acquire new knowledge, A person who has not completed his studies, who has never studied, for whatever reason, will always have difficulty acquiring new knowledge, simply because his brain will not have trained this neuronal plasticity. Therefore, It is not important to live experiences, acquire knowledge and set limitsKnowing that we cannot achieve all of our objectives and that there will be things that oppose us more than others.
,How important is play in its ability to educate our brain? Playing as an adult is considered a step too far, isn’t it?
-Play is a spontaneous behavior of acquiring new knowledge, boys and girls do not play for fun, they play to learn.
It is a controlled, relatively safe way of acquiring knowledge by interacting with yourself, with your environment, with your friends, with adults… What happens?
Since acquiring knowledge is beneficial to our survival, the more things we know, the easier it will be to anticipate threats, anticipate opportunities…
Since learning is so important, every time we learn something our brain rewards us with feelings of happiness and well-being. Adults should move within the same parameters with the same joy we associate with play and live experiences incorporating this sense of reward and enjoyment. Never lose this ability to be boys and girls.
,You devote a chapter to talking about the difference between well-being and happiness. Because they are different?
– Well-being and happiness are two concepts that we often use synonymously or almost synonymously, but at the brain level they are not. Happiness is an extremely intense peak of pleasure that is fleeting, lasting for a while, but then ending. Happiness cannot last forever. This involves releasing certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, in such high amounts that the brain cannot handle it forever. So the pleasure wears off, and when that happens, to recover, the brain needs a dip, that feeling of emptiness that we can get after very intense pleasure.
,And welfare?
-Happiness involves the same neurotransmitters or hormones of happiness – dopamine, serotonin, endorphins… – but in different proportions. Just as happiness releases dopamine, which is the neurotransmitter that signals a state of happiness and euphoria, well-being is based on serotonin, the neurotransmitter that transmits sensations of being comfortable with your environment, of “good vibes.”
And that’s the definition of well-being, feeling reasonably comfortable with yourself, with your environment and with what you’re doing. Wellbeing has no expiration date, it has its ups and downs, sure, but it can last forever. In fact, there are uncomfortable emotional states, such as sadness or frustration, that have a place within well-being, because they are the ones that allow us to reactivate ourselves to reactivate this well-being.
Happiness does not allow these important emotional states. Therefore, what we should look for in our lives is a state of well-being, not great happiness, which does not mean that feeling happy from time to time is not beneficial.
,Why do we believe that our intelligence is given to us and that we cannot change it (in this case for the better)?
-usually, It is thought that intelligence is a fixed thing in our brain, that every person is born with a certain intelligence and that they will maintain it throughout their lives. It has been seen that no. We have genetic conditions, there are people who are genetically predisposed than others to any type of brain, mental or cognitive function, but that’s a predisposition, it’s not a determinism.
Through learning, experience, and effort, we can enhance any cognitive characteristic we desire, which of course includes intelligence. We can always increase any cognitive characteristic and attention, if we do not do it well, we can also reduce it. We can always take one more step from where we are; It’s not about reaching the maximum, but about wanting to go a little further.
,What is the inverse Flynn effect and how is it related to intelligence?
-The reverse Flynn effect is an effect that was studied by the American psychologist and philosopher James Flynn in 1984. They observed that, from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1980s, IQ was increasing by about two and three points every decade.
At the time this was interpreted as improving educational systems and improving diet, as diet affects brain formation.
Around 2018, a group of Norwegian researchers repeated the same work as Flynn and what they saw was that IQ seemed to decrease by seven points every decade, and this was called the inverse Flynn effect.
,what is this for? Is the new generation less intelligent than the previous generation?
-The authors of that work said that this result was due to the deterioration of diet – fast, industrial food … – and what they called the “collapse” of educational systems.
But there is a more plausible explanation for these two hypotheses, and that is that educational systems have changed, the way we deliver education has changed, it is not just cramming, which is still the case, but it is more There is competency-based education, which is as it should be, because we must apply what we are learning in new situations, and know where to direct everything later in real life.
Education should not be based only on memorization but also on skills. The tests conducted in intelligence testing today are the same as 50 years ago. Therefore, if we change the educational system, but not the way this educational system is evaluated, we are cheating. This is my explanation of why IQ is decreasing. The thing is, maybe we’re not measuring it adequately currently, at least in that study.
,In the book you have also mentioned growth mindset. Can you explain to us what it is about?
-The growth mindset was proposed 30 years ago by Carol Dweck, a North American psychologist, who proposed that there are two types of mindsets people have: what she called fixed mindset and growth mindset. He based it on IQ, he said that people with a fixed mindset are those who believe that their intelligence cannot be increased any further, that they cannot go any further, that they are already at their limit. Have arrived. And growth mindset, people who think we can always go one step further.
As I say, Carroll Dweck proposed it with intelligence in mind, but it can be applied to any mental and cognitive characteristics, any talent.
The important thing is that people with a growth mindset are more optimistic, it is easier for them to find inspiration. This makes them put in more effort, because they feel comfortable in what they are doing and then, they get better results. It is important to foster a growth mindset.
,How can we do this?
-Well, to be aware that our brain is always changing, it can always incorporate new skills, knowledge, talents or perfect the ones we already have and that, above all, it allows us to Inspiring people who are already doing it so that they can serve as guides for us. Example. Using this growth mindset helps us live a full life.