Concentration Power

The person who has no concentration power is Now increasing！？

summary

point 1 : Reading books increases the power of concentration
point 2 : Reading articles on web pages cause scattering of attention

There are many navigations and advertisements and image hyperlinks on web site.

'the shallows' written by Nicholas George Carr says

When we follow links, we are apt to forget the main theme what we should look into. This is thought to be dispersion.

the workings of the brain

It was revealed that both the text processor area(visual/speech/memory) and the prefrontal area(decision-making) of the brain are acting when we read texts on the web.

When we read books only text processor area is active. On the other hand, when we read texts on the web, our brain needs to change the text processor area and the prefrontal area each other. It is said that if this process is repeated, we become unable to read texts carefully.

Actually I got in online texts with a smartphone, then I didn't read books. To my surprise, one day I read a book and realized I can't read quickly, can't understand contents, and can't concentrate my attention on what I am reading.

We can easily search everything on the Internet now. But it may deprive us from careful reading. So we can't integrate our thought and lost the ability to think.

reading books increase the ability to concentrate

From the above facts, we had better read one article without hyperlinks.
Neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield says,
'In an age of Twitter and short attention spans, reading novels could be the antidote'.

When I read a novel, sometimes I forget the time. I think we need this sort of time; devoting ourself to text.

For better or worse, our brain make new circuits written in 'the swallows'. This is called synaptic plasticity. By way of example, when we become able to follow links to get new information, our ability to read texts carefully becomes weak or disappears.

The book says 'the brain choose the line(compared to a water channel) of least resistance'([1],p57),

in short, we choose soft option as a human! Thus we use smartphone research instead of reading books carefully, because smartphone itself has a dependency.

TEDEd「The neuroscience of imagination - Andrey Vyshedskiy 」

Here, I summarize the main points of this movie and explain about imagination.

Imagine what you have not seen.

'Dolphin that balancing pineapple'

Even though I have never seen such a thing, a person can imagine this.
People are used to this act, but in fact they do very complicated things.

記憶

A person encodes a feature of an object. An image of the encoded information grouped together is assembled in the brain.

In the case of pineapple, "sharp" "fruit" "brown" "green" "yellow" is coded, Each one of these features forms a group and memorizes "pineapple".

timing

I understood that a person encodes and memorizes objects.
However, the mental image of 'Dolphin that balancing pineapple' is not memorized in the brain.
But why can you imagine?
In one hypothesis, "timing" is regarded as important.

When cells that remembered "pineapple" and "dolphin" were activated at the same time, we recognized these two images as a single event.


And the prefrontal cortex can match the two timings.
It can send signals to cells that memorize "pineapple" or "dolphin" and activate them at the same time. By doing so you can imagine things you have never seen before.

But here is one problem.
Cells that memorize some images are very far from the prefrontal cortex.
Even though it must be activated at the same time, there is no timing with signals of the same speed.

However, the brain that has developed from childhood has a way to change the speed to convey.
That is a lipid called "myelin".
Covered with myelin, the speed will speed up.
If 100 layers are overlapped, the speed will be more than 100 times.
Depending on the thickness of this layer of myelin, the transmission rate is changing.

The formation of this myelin occurs from childhood.
That is, the development of the brain will evolve the imagination.

Empathy

Empathy is decreasing!?

The following is an investigation in the US, but I anticipate that the same thing is going on in Japan as well.

In the article by The Globe and Mail(2017/08/30)

Because I have imagination I can sympathize with you

We believe imagination can be trained by books.

The amount of information of type is overwhelmingly small compared to audio and video.
With type with a small amount of information, it is increasingly necessary to think by yourself, supplementing with imagination is indispensable.

People repeatedly imagine everyday, it is thought that they are exercising imagination. As quoted in the activation of the brain,

By imagining, this phenomenon that a person can experience a completely different life from himself is said to not occur in television and games.

Break down the vicious cycle of
I am tired of imagining→I rely on easy-to-see "images"→More imagination disappears→I can not understand the other's feelings


Let's make it the brain I am a bit tired but I will try reading→Supplement the ambiguous part with imagination→I has imagination→I will be able to think of your partner's feelings

Ability to understand others

For children,　"picture book" seems to be effective as well. A picture book is a wonderful teaching material that teaches understanding to others to the brain of an infant who can not understand others and thinks selfishly.

It is not easy for children aged 3 to 5 to understand and sympathize others.
So children will syompathize with the thoughts of the characters through the story of the picture book and try to understand.
We are neither bears nor rabbits. We are not princess, and the prince does not come either.
We can not fly in the sky and adventure on the moon.
But you can "know" it, you can imagine and enjoy it. That is a picture book.
This childhood experience is the source of empathy of the present.