Healthy Brain, Happy Life

I slowly learned that being happy comes down to making sure you not only are using all parts of your brain in a balanced way but are also connecting your brain and your body.

The best way to learn something deeply is to teach others about it.

THE BRAIN AND ALL ITS PARTS

Neuroscientists used to think of the different parts of the brain

inferior frontal gyrus

t the bottom of the temporal lobe is a unique area known as the fusiform face area, which specializes in helping us recognize faces. When this region is damaged, people cannot distinguish facial features, a condition known as prosopagnosia.

left parietal lobe

you also seem to recruit additional brain areas to help you with a second late-learned language. These additional areas are situated toward the bottom part of the frontal lobe on the left side, called the inferior frontal gyrus

the size and function of a brain—rat or human—is highly sensitive and reactive to all aspects of any given environment—physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive. This constant interaction between the brain and the environment, combined with the brain’s ability to respond by changing its anatomical structure and physiology, is what neuroscientists mean by the term brain plasticity

Diamond showed that in the enriched environment, dendritic branches (those input structures of the neurons that look like tree branches) actually grow and expand, allowing the cells to receive and process larger amounts of information

refers to the idea that the brain has an essential ability to change (like a piece of malleable plastic) as a result of experience