Exercise Your Brain With Math

 

EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN WITH MATH

The average human working brain can store around 90 trillion bits of information. That is just less than 1 percent of its capacity, which an ordinary humans are able to use. You would need a computer to have 11,250 gigabytes of memory for that. Imagine using more than 1 percent!

The human brain ages and shrinks because of the reduced communication between neurons. According to scientific studies, it starts at the age of 40, but accelerates at 60, the retirement age. This is mostly the time when the person’s brain is no longer challenge by activities. This causes the slowing down of cognitive processing. This is why neuroscientists recommend puzzle solving and multitasking for people aged 60 and above. So that the neurons in their brain will not get stagnant and revitalize.

Many neuroscientists say that solving mathematical problems is the best way to help improve brain neural function. It doesn’t matter if the person can or cannot solve the problem, what matters is that he is thinking or trying to think of ways to solve the problem. It makes the neurons in the brain communicate, and the more they interact, the healthier the brain. Mathematics, because of its many intricacies, helps rejuvenate the brain by promoting neuroplasticity (the brain’s ability to form neural connection), revitalizing existing pathways (as in recalling past knowledge, like the ones we learned in school or from experiences, or from learning new things), and increasing gray matters in key regions of the brain, which is very vital to mental health. It functions as the central processing unit of the entire nervous system, which handles information storage, cognitive response, motor and sensory control, emotional and behavioral regulation.

It’s like this: You start out with Math and it branches out to everything else that you do. Come to think of it, everything in life has Math in it, and nothing moves in the universe without Math.

Galileo once said that “Mathematics is a gift from GOD” and it is “the language with which GOD has written the universe.” We should cherish it! Who knows, we may still learn new things. For life is an ever learning endeavor.