Neurology and Neuroscience Specialist Assoc. Dr. Selen Gür Özmen said, “We have a chance to reach solutions by listening to someone else’s problems and not having those experiences. This experience developed in the face of problems also strengthens the brain by causing cognitive flexibility.
Bahçeşehir University (BAU) Neurology Specialist and Neuroscientist Assoc. Dr. Selen Gür Özmen said that listening to someone else’s problems is also beneficial for the brain and listed the substances that improve the brain.
“ROUTINES ARE THE ENEMY OF THE BRAIN”
Expressing that the brain prefers routines evolutionarily, Assoc. Dr. Selen Gür Özmen said that people usually choose the easy way to feel safer. He said that this easy way makes the limited amount of cells in the brain less useful and closes the ways that the brain connects with each other, and that people who go out of routine benefit their brain health by increasing the synaptic connection paths between the brain cells and neurons. At the same time, more active use of the brain causes both psychological and neurological diseases to be avoided.
“LISTENING TO OTHERS’ PROBLEMS INCREASES THE FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN”
Underlining that listening to someone else is related to cognitive flexibility, Özmen said; “Being cognitively flexible means being able to produce different solutions in different situations. We can see it as being able to produce a new alternative if a previously useful solution no longer works, or making the solution we used in another issue, a problem completely usable in the face of another issue and another situation. Being able to do all these things quickly and without the need for others is cognitive flexibility.
And being able to adapt to external factors, work, school, home, etc. Changes such as spouse or lover separation are also important changes in a person’s life. Being able to adapt to all of these is cognitive flexibility, and not being able to adapt is rigidity. After all, there are many alternatives that you have not experienced in life. By listening to, reading and observing the experiences of others, we have the chance to reach solutions without experiencing those alternatives. If we listen to, learn and digest from others how alternative ways reach ends in a conflict or problem that has been told or experienced by someone else, when we face the same problem, we can choose the right way much easier and be guided because we already know what alternative solutions lead to.
PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES STRENGTHEN OUR MEMORY
Expressing that there is a serious relationship between physical activities and mental exercise, Özmen said that before sleep and when we are calm, we are more closed to learning and when we are active, productivity increases.