Extreme development creates the "strongest brain"? Beware of these "neurological myths"!

“Only 10% of the brain potential of an average person is developed; the right brain is more powerful than the left brain, and using your left hand more can develop the right brain; you are an auditory learner; listening to Mozart’s music can stimulate the alpha waves in your brain, which can double your learning efficiency.” This type of propaganda often cites brain science papers or data, which seem to be well-founded at first glance, and coupled with commercial hype, people think that through some kind of training, they can enter the fast lane of brain power improvement. Are they neuroscience or “neuromyths” disguised as neuroscience?

The term "neuromyth" first appeared in the medical field to describe the incorrect use of neuroscience knowledge in clinical diagnosis and etiology analysis. The brain is closely related to learning, and neuromyths are increasingly rampant in the field of education. In 2002, the Brain and Learning Project of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development defined neuromyths as "misconceptions that arise from misunderstandings, mistranslations, and misquotes of scientific research results, which can be used as sufficient evidence for brain science research in education or other fields."

How did the neuromyth come about? Take the example of "only 10% of the brain potential of ordinary people is developed". Using brain imaging technology during a certain period of time may show that 10% of the brain areas are more active, and the other 90% of the brain areas are relatively less active. However, the less active brain areas are only temporarily relatively silent, not forever unresponsive. From a cellular perspective, there are two types of cells in the brain, one is neurons that can respond after being stimulated, and the other is glial cells that cannot respond after being stimulated. Glial cells play roles such as support, orientation, insulation, nutrition, and repair, and can be regarded as the logistics support system of neurons. They are numerous, more than 10 times more than neurons. We cannot say that 90% of the brain's functions have not been developed just because glial cells account for more than 90%.

Let's take "developing the right brain" as an example. Sperry, an American neurobiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1981, pointed out through a large number of experiments on split-brain humans and animals that the two hemispheres of the brain have a division of labor: the left hemisphere is mainly responsible for logic, understanding, memory, time, language, arrangement, classification, writing, etc., and the right hemisphere is mainly responsible for spatial memory, intuition, emotion, body coordination, art, music rhythm, imagination, inspiration, epiphany, etc. Fully tapping the potential of the right brain will stimulate human creativity. However, this discovery is often over-interpreted by people. In fact, the division of labor between the right and left brains is not absolute. Brain functions such as logic, understanding, memory, emotion, and imagination require the participation of both hemispheres. It's just that the left brain is more active in performing certain functions, and the right brain is more active in performing other functions. They are like a violin and a piano ensemble, and they must cooperate with each other to play a perfect melody.

As for "using the left hand more can develop the right brain", it is even more ridiculous. Using the left hand more can at best develop the small area of ​​the right brain motor cortex that controls the left hand, and will not promote the development of functions in other areas.

Some neuromyths involve concepts that are not fallacies, but rather misquotes of brain science knowledge. In 1983, Gardner, a psychologist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, proposed the theory of multiple intelligences. The theory holds that everyone has multiple intelligences, and traditional education only focuses on cultivating language intelligence and logical and mathematical intelligence, but ignores the cultivation of other intelligences. The theory of multiple intelligences has positive significance, but Gardner claims that each intelligence comes from a specific brain area, which is inconsistent with the conclusion of brain science research that "each intelligence involves multiple brain areas", so it is also regarded as a "neuromyth."

Neuromyths are widely spread, catering to people's desire to quickly improve their intelligence and promoting the unhealthy trend of distorting science. In order to resist the rumors of neuromyths, a new discipline has gradually emerged - educational neuroscience. It is the intersection of brain science, cognitive science and pedagogy, and attempts to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning through brain science knowledge, making the learning process easier and more enjoyable, and more effective. At present, educational neuroscience is still in its infancy, and there is still a long way to go from theory to practice. I believe that in the future it will bring inspiration and help to learners and stimulate greater potential of the human brain.

(The author is an associate professor at Central China Normal University and a member of the Science Popularization and Continuing Education Committee of the Chinese Society of Neuroscience)