With its 86 billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of intricate connections, the human brain is mystifyingly complex. Which explains why, despite lightning-fast advancements in neuroscience, there’s still a lot that we don’t understand.
And even what we think we understand may not be completely accurate. In fact, much of what the public thinks about the brain is based on popular myths that have perpetuated despite the passage of time and the proliferation of brain research.
These myths include the idea that you’re only tapping 10% of your brain’s potential; that creative people are dominated by the right side of their brain; that your brain is perfectly capable of juggling multiple tasks simultaneously; that there’s a hidden message in your dreams; and that our dependence on technology is making us less and less intelligent, just to name a few.
These and other popular myths all derive from the fact that the brain, for all its complexity, is still very much an imperfect system. As popular Great Courses instructor and award-winning professor Dr. Indre Viskontas of the University of San Francisco puts it,
“for all its beauty, the brain can be messy, random, and inefficient. It can be prone to mistakes from the lowest levels of perception to the highest levels of complex decision making.”
To start building a more straightforward, accurate understanding of current breakthroughs in neuroscience, and how they’re reshaping what we thought we knew about the brain, you have to start by shattering popular brain myths. Exploring these myths is also a fun way to engage with neuroscience—to get an accessible look at an often-intimidating field of study—as well as a chance to think more deeply about who you are and why you do the things you do.
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