David Bueno, Doctor of Biology and specialist in neuroeducation: "The best exercise to have a healthy brain is to use it"

Cristina Galafate

Updated Monday, February 5, 2024-01:48

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After

entering

the adolescent brain to understand why young people go to bed late, constantly mess up the room or are more defenseless to stress,

David Bueno

(Barcelona, ​​March 20, 1965) now publishes a new informative essay to optimize our gray matter .

This Doctor in Biology, specialist in neuroeducation, teacher and researcher in the Biomedical, Evolutionary and Developmental Genetics section of the University of Barcelona explains that our mind and brain are not fixed, they can always

continue to develop and expand horizons

.

Educate your brain

(Ed. Grijalbo) is committed to daily mental gymnastics, from the enjoyment of culture with a good book or exposure to the best boredom that stimulates our creativity and allows us a full life.

Bueno defends that boredom is necessary for the brain and that carrying out several activities at the same time reduces our ability to concentrate and resilience.EM

Should the educational system be rethought if it is still useful to memorize

a lesson

to pass it on an

exam

? It was useful in its time, in the mid-20th century, when there were many fewer books and we did not have the Internet, but today it is of little use. Now the important thing is not to have memory, but to know how to manage the knowledge you receive to acquire new ones. In your book you question the 'Flynn effect in reverse' and the idea that

we are becoming dumber

and our intelligence is regressing, especially as a result of the latest results of the PISA report. What do you mean? I put it into question. doubt because educational systems have changed, but the

way of numerically evaluating

and

quantifying intelligence

remains the same as 50 years ago. New elements should be introduced that are also part of intelligence. The environment has changed, can and should we demand the same things from our children and students? If we do not value everything together, we risk cheating by playing solitaire. What effect does spending

two hours on TikTok watching 30-second videos

have on a young person's brain

, at least if they scroll through them? Can they be assimilated or does it affect your concentration? It affects very negatively. New technologies are not bad per se, but rather the use we make of them. And it is the abuse that has detrimental effects. Attention

is a very limited resource

because it consumes a lot of energy. If I'm on TikTok and watching a series at the same time, I'm not even distributing my attention 50%, but rather I'm giving 40% to each thing. And if there are three or four things at the same time, even less. But not only social networks, also listening to an audio at 1.5 or speeding up a series because we don't have patience. Do we really have all five senses if we listen to the podcast while driving or if we respond to WhatsApp while cooking? We do everything at half throttle.

Jumping from one activity to another decreases our resilience

. The important thing is to know how to manage technology and educate for its good use. Everyone admits that before they knew the street address, at least the one in his neighborhood, and the phone numbers of close friends and family. Now, without a mobile phone we often seem useless. For example, when we don't even know how to give ours. Are we losing faculties or are we using that memory for other more important things that a

smartphone

or calculator

does not provide us with a click ?

Exercising memory is necessary.

What is not so much anymore is that it is in the same way as years ago. Digital generations have less memory than digital immigrants, but they have the ability to integrate, since the brain learns and adapts to the environment it finds. Memory is not as necessary as it was before, but it is still essential to cultivate it in order to have critical and analytical awareness. Because we must know how to differentiate what is true from what is not, to judge for ourselves, and even more so now. The Internet gives access to a lot of interesting information but also to an immense amount of nonsense. Is it necessary to be bored to foster creativity? For decades there has been a tendency to fill children with activities: sports that are very good, music with instruments to express themselves better, languages ​​that are necessary for tomorrow... However, one of the exercises that most favors creativity is spending time without anything scheduled to do each day.

Having some leisure time is not wasting time, it is gaining it

. It seems that boredom is bad, when if you have worked and studied the relevant hours, it is essential. And is it a problem that we have taken productivity to leisure and we feel bad if we are not up to date with the book or series of the one that everyone talks about? 40% of university students have symptoms of

stress, anguish and anxiety

. If every day, from a young age, we spend some time getting bored, we will help build mental capacities and attitudes that favor the generation and maintenance of a greater sense of well-being for the future. The reason is related to the perception we acquire about who controls the activities we carry out, us in a desired way or the environment in an irremediable way. Can we also educate the brain to avoid the thousands of negative thoughts that flood us or the fear that blocks us? ?Without a doubt, not only can you but you must detect the most recurrent ones to know how to remove them.

We live in a society where we have commercialized happiness, when in reality it is an ephemeral state

. We should identify more with well-being, those thoughts of peace and tranquility, where one feels at ease. Labels are necessary, because they help us classify and understand the world but they also limit us. What happens if we tell a child that he or she is not good for that? What effect can it have on your future if you integrate it into your belief system? Some labels are very useful because they free us from having to think and reflect. The problem is negative labels in childhood, as you say. Something may be more difficult for a child, but that doesn't mean it isn't useful.

The brain is very obedient

, you just have to see what children are capable of believing, how can they not trust an adult who encourages them not to sing because it's raining or not to draw because you're a disaster at painting? How can we promote a growth mentality? ?The opposite is the fixed mindset, people who believe they have reached their limit. Instead, the growth mindset defines people, myself included, that we can always

learn and perfect our talents

. That if we make an effort and feel motivated we can accomplish what we do not set out to do. People with a growth mindset are more optimistic, things go better for them and they feel more comfortable with themselves. Motivation can fluctuate, is discipline preferable to achieve goals? It has to be self-discipline and is part of the same process. Because

a motivated person will have an easier time having their own discipline

. Without motivation nothing is achieved. Are we unmotivated if we have already failed with our January goals? (Laughs). Some may not even remember what they set out to do. The problem is that we set unrealistic goals and have inertia from our past life. If I make a goal to go to the gym for an hour and a half every day and until now I haven't gone even one day, it is difficult for me to stick to it, because I will also have to add the travel time to go and return to the sports center to that time.

We have to be more realistic

and propose, perhaps, starting by going twice a week. The habit of writing is increasingly recommended, from a diary as therapy to having a paper agenda. Is it liberating? Without a doubt, having a good agenda relieves stress, especially if you have a long list of things to do. Paper allows you to organize your ideas, better assimilate what you read. When you are in front of a screen, sometimes you jump from one thing to another, you don't do a linear reading. This makes learning difficult, which is why we are going back to the one computer system for each student that was intended to be implemented. Is there any exercise to keep the brain healthy?

The best exercise to have a healthy brain is to use it.

Think, read, go to the theater, see art exhibitions, argue with friends around a coffee... Not in the sense of fighting, but of confronting ideas, of arguing. Reading the newspaper is also good exercise for the brain. I had a grandfather who, at 99 years old, still went down to the newsstand and discussed the news with my grandmother. Is it never too late to learn even if children's brains are more plastic? That's right, children, in the learning process, establish new connections and train that plasticity. Hence the importance in the educational system of stimulating the brain, as important or more than the curriculum. If the brain is not used, if it is not enhanced and if it is not worked, its learning capacity is limited. That is why it is so important

to educate and re-educate ourselves

.

Educate your brain

, by David Bueno, is edited by Grijalbo and you can buy it here