It's Brain Awareness Week!

Brain Awareness Week is the one week of the year that neuroscientists like myself get to crawl out of the woodwork and proudly talk about brain and mental wellness. Just because we cannot see our brains doesn't mean we don't need to take care of them. In fact, maintaining good brain health is essential to living a healthy life!

There's lots of misinformation about brains that often goes around, so I'll spend this blog post answering common questions and dispelling some myths.

Question: Do we really only use 10% of our brains? Answer: No! This is definitely a myth. While not all of the centers of our brain are active all the time, there are many different networks that circulate activity around the brain to keep basic functions, like breathing, going. If we only used 10% of our brains, we'd be vegetables!

Question: Am I more right-brained or left-brained?

Answer: The whole left brain vs right brain division theory is also a myth. Some functions are lateralized to (or, hosted in) either side of the brain, while most require both sides. Language, for example, is more dominant in the left hemisphere, while facial recognition is processed more in the right. But stuff like thinking and walking takes both sides of our brains to work! Being more artsy does not mean you're more right-brained and being more analytic does not mean you're more left-brained.

Question: When does my brain stop growing?

Answer: This question can be a little complicated to answer because changes in our brain happen throughout our lifetime. There is a ton of growth and new connections formed between neurons (brain cells) from when we are a baby to when we are a child, and then some brain areas actually see a decrease in size and amount of connections through adolescence as these connections are refined and made more efficient. Generally, this is stabilized in adulthood, and we don't see many changes thereafter. Meanwhile, one of the few areas of the brain that can keep growing brain cells is the hippocampus, which is a key area in learning and memory.

Question: Why does brain fog occur?

Answer: There are a lot of reasons you can be experiencing brain fog. One of the biggest ones right now is due COVID infection. Other causes include overworking, lack of sleep, stress, or too much time spent at a computer. Brain fog is also common during mental health illnesses, such as depression and anxiety, and is also common following a concussion, which is a brain injury from hitting your head. If you are experiencing brain fog, you should speak with your doctor.

The brain is complicated - so complicated that it cannot understand itself - which I think is super cool. For this reason, it's natural to have a lot of questions about it! This is also why maintaining awareness around brain health and brain research throughout the rest of the year is important, not just during Brain Awareness Week.

Leave a comment below, or fill out my contact form if you have any brain questions. Don't hesitate to reach out! I love talking about the brain and would love to help answer your questions.

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Did you enjoy learning about brain facts today? Are there some questions you still have that I haven't touched on?

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