All This 2020 Tumult Could Make Your Brain Sharper
This year has knocked our brains off of their hamster wheels, says neuroscientist David Eagleman
We’ve heard a lot about the irreparable toll that the stress of the Covid-19 pandemic will take on our brains, and rightly so. But not everyone is 100% pessimistic about the long-term effects. Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman says that, in some cases, dealing with this tumult could be good for your brain.
The host of PBS’s The Brain, scientific adviser of the HBO series Westworld, and author of several books on neuroscience has recently published a new one. Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain is all about the extraordinary adaptability of that skull-encased, three-pound, jellylike mass called the human brain. In a year that has surely tested the limits of our adaptive abilities, Elemental spoke with Eagleman about what’s going on in his head and ours, cognitively speaking.
Elemental: Very important question to start off, David. Is there a neuroscientific reason behind all of us bingeing our favorite television shows?
Eagleman: That tends to be where the brain likes to be the most! That sweet spot between familiarity and novelty. We’re gravitating towards the familiar since there’s perhaps been too…
