Myth: Older people are doomed to forget things
Fact : While older people may not be good at learning new things (in general, not always) but the older brain becomes more specialized than generalized. It’s like getting PhD versus your graduation, you get specialized in one specific thing. As we grow old we get better in controlling emotion, judgment, appreciating things, social communication, diplomacy and similar.
Myth: Older people cannot learn new things
Fact : It’s so true when they say, there is no age for learning. We can learn things at any age. Learning involves a process called neurogenesis (growing new neurons) and this can happen at any age. While what may be true is learning something completely new at older age might take more time than a younger brain.
Myth: We are sure to have dementia at old age
Fact : People get confused by Dementia and aging. Dementia is not aging. Typical age related changes in the brain and behavior are not same as dementia. Dementia can be slowed down while aging of brain can be avoided.
Myth: We must master one language before learning another
Fact : In fact the opposite is true, when kids are bilingual they have a better generalized structure of language as a whole.
Myth : We use 10% of our brain
Fact : OK, next time I have a damage in my brain, I should not be worried then. There are series of test results which have proved this myth completely false. And even if it were to be true — they whole evolution theory would fail ; we as human race have not evolved and use only 10% of our brain. What might be a more logical answer is ; 10–20% of the brain part are always very active and the remaining ones are used /utilized but not as much as those 20%.
Myth : Crossword puzzles keep away brain aging
Fact: Crossword puzzles flex only a portion of our brain like word finding ability. So while they might help in word fluency they do not necessarily keep the brain sharp. Research shows that there is no direct correlation between doing puzzles/crosswords and sharper brain. What puzzles and similar things do is it keeps the brain active, reduces decline in thinking skills.
Myth : One is dominated by either the right or left brain
Fact: On the contrary, the left and right brain are intricately codependent. The left brain / right brain person concept is more of a psychological one generated to describe a person as creative or analytical. Research shows that we use both hemisphere together. For example; for language processing — the left handles grammar and pronunciations while the right processes intonation. We employ both the right and left for both reading and math.
Myth : We have only 5 senses
Fact : No, it’s not just sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. We also have — 1 ) a sense of where our body parts are and what they are doing, 2 ) a sense of balance telling us if we are sitting, standing, lying. This is located in the inner ear. 3) A sense of pain.4) A sense of temperature. 5) A sense of time. 6) A sense of internal needs like hunger, thirst, urination.
