Too
much experience might dull our brains.
Besides its obvious advantages, of all
the disadvantages of experience, and there are many, the most frightening one
is its cumulative effect on the brain.
As growingly more activities become familiar and routine, sometimes even
automatic, there is less and less need for analysis and thought. Rather, our brains search their enormous database
and conveniently find a precedent. This
is a fast process with minimal expenditure of mental effort.
A superficial look at this situation
would not see anything wrong with it. On
the contrary, as we gain more experience we move through our days with greater
ease and efficiency. There is, of
course, always the danger that a precedent doesn't fit well the current
situation and thus we shall, practically without awareness, commit a mistake. (See my earlier blog on this issue). But on the whole the system seems to be
working quite well.
The true danger lies elsewhere. As our need for effortful thought
diminishes, so does our cognitive vitality.
A lazy brain that can manage without major and frequent challenges, by
necessity becomes a dull brain. There is
now plenty of scientific evidence about the importance of novelty and challenge
to cognitive health. Our book: "Maximum Brainpower: Challenging the Brain for Health and
Wisdom" (Shlomo Breznitz and
Collins Hemingway, Ballantine, June 2012) devotes several chapters to this
important issue. We even
understand today some of the biological mechanisms that are involved in the
benefits of cognitive challenge. Chief
among are: blood supply to oxygen
starved neurons, the establishment of new connections between neurons and their
close and distant neighbors, nerve growth factors, and neuronal regeneration.
The above argument is so critical that
I would even venture to claim that the age-related cognitive decline found
in elderly people is at least partially due to the vast experience of this
group. As we grow old we rarely find
ourselves in unfamiliar situations. We
have already seen everything, heard everything, and thought about everything in
the past, and "there is nothing new under the sun."
This is a systemic problem, since our
brains cannot not to learn from experience (see also my previous blog). Systemic problems require a deliberate
intervention and can't be left to chance events. More about that in the future.
