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by Trish Riddell

Top Ten Myths about the Brain – The Sequel


Recently, I asked the Kaizen community whether they could identify which of a group of statements were myths about the brain and which were supported by scientific evidence.  I was overwhelmed with the response – thank you to all of you who took the time to reply.  I thought it might be useful for the community to see my answers, and to find out what proportion of the group had the same answer as me.  So – here are the questions again, with my answer and the percentage of people who disagreed:
.
1.  We make no new neurones in our brain after we are born:  False
(8% thought this was true)

2. We only use 10% of our brains:  False
(33% thought this was true)

3. There are left brain and right brain people:  False
(25% thought this was true)

4. Listening to Mozart does not make you smarter:  True
(13% thought this was false)

5. Your memory can hold 7 + 2 things at a time:  False
(40% thought this was true)

6. It’s all downhill after 60!:  False
(8% thought this was true)

7. We know what will make us happy:  False
(38% thought this was true)

8. Our memories of past events in our lives are inaccurate:  True
(38% thought this was false)

9. The reptilian brain controls our emotional responses:  False
(50% thought this was true)

10. The adult brain is able to be changed:  True
(25% thought this was false)
.

I have provided the full answers based on the latest scientific evidence here

I was surprised that there were some people that still believed every one of these myths about the brain.  And I was encouraged that most people now know that we can make new neurons and most know that it is not all downhill after 60 (though I wondered how much of this was wishful thinking!). Clearly, however, there is a need for more expert advice in this field.

I have put together a short video (watch here) explaining why I think knowing about the brain can add value to everyone’s life.

And, if you are worried about being out of date in your information about the brain, I would love to see you on one of my upcoming workshops.  The first people to sign up to each workshop will receive a set of resources (total value £40) that I have chosen specifically to aid their learning journey.

So, click on the links below to put your name down for a course.

It’s all about the Brain is a one day workshop on the 31st of March for those who are starting out on their journey of discovery about the brain.

Brain Waves for Coaches is a two day workshop on the 1st-2nd March for those who feel they would like to know how to use the brain to improve their range of coaching tools.

Posted Thursday, January 5th, 2012 in . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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