Misconceptions about Happiness
September 2014
Greater Good Science Center
Happiness comes from a lot of different things.
For different people, different practices, different pieces of knowledge
are going to contribute more impactful or less impactful ways. This is an idea that
Sonja Lyubormirsky from UC Riverside calls fit.
After watching this, your brain will not be the same
Lara Boyd
TEDxVancouver at Rogers Arena on November 14, 2015
neuroplasticity
All of our behaviors change our brain
brain changes to support learning:
1. Chemical changes. The brain changes the concentration of chemicals, supporting short-term memory
2. The brain alters its structure, it alters the connections betwen neurons, supporting long-term memory. It takes time. What we see in the short term does not reflect learning.
Integrated networks of brain regions. People who read Braille have larger hand sensory areas in the brain.
3. Altering its function. As we use a brain region, it becomes more and more excitable and easy to use again.
The best driver of neuroplastic change in your brain is your behavior.
The problem: the dose of behavior, the dose of practice required to learn new skills is very large.
Therapies that prime the brain to learn:
– exercise
– brain stimulation
– robotics
Nothing is more effective than practice in helping you learn.
So there is no neuroplasticity drug you can take.
Increased difficulty, increased struggle during practice leads to more learning and greater structural change in the brain.
Why do kids sometimes fail at school?
There is no one-size fits all approach to learning; there is no recipe for learning.
