What is a Neuromyth?

A neuromyth is a commonly-held false belief about how the mind and brain function. The term refers to the translation of scientific findings into misinformation regarding education. Once these myths take hold in the public consciousness, it’s often difficult for people to separate brain facts from fiction. The prevalence of the neuromyths in teachers has potential to seriously impact student learning. Some of the prevalent neuromyths are listed below:

1. Being Left brained or Right Brained makes a difference to one’s learning

The left and right hemispheres of the brain work together. There is no evidence that people’s learning differs in important ways based on one hemisphere being more dominant than the other.

2. Brain development has finished by the time children reach puberty.

Brain does not keep getting bigger with age and reaches its largest physical size around 11 (for girls) and around 14 (for boys). But, the internal structure of brain continues developing and maturing until mid- to late-20s. Brain’s limbic system develops years ahead of the prefrontal cortex. The limbic system is associated with emotions, impulses, aggression and instinctive behaviour. Prefrontal cortex, the brain’s rational part, is one of the last brain regions to mature and its development continues until age 25 or so. It is the area responsible for planning, prioritizing and controlling impulses. In teens brains, connections between the emotional part of the brain and the decision-making centre are still developing.  This is the reason for teens being more emotionally charged. The teen brain is ready to learn and adapt.

3. We only use 10% of our brain

This neuromyth is further cemented by Hollywood Movies like “Lucy” and “Limitless”. The fact is that a healthy person uses 100% of his or her brain. The myth probably comes from William James, widely considered as the father of psychology, who wrote that it’s unlikely most people would ever reach 10% of their potential. Somehow, this became 10% of their brain. However, brain imaging hasn’t shown any inactive areas in a healthy brain.

People love this myth because it makes them feel good. It means that you may have some huge amount of untapped potential which could unlock should you use the right techniques or tools. Marketers also love this myth because it helps them sell dubious products that are supposed to let you access the remaining 90% of your brain capacity. First, there’s lots of evidence showing that whatever an individual is doing—even if they’re told to just lay down in the scanner and not do anything—pretty much all of the areas of the brain are active. Second, it makes no evolutionary sense to have an organ that is 90% unused. Especially when it comes to the brain, which uses a staggering 20% of the body’s energy, despite being only 2% of its weight.

4. Learning is due to the addition of new cells to the brain

It is true that Neurogenesis adds new neurons to brain and this process continues even in adulthood. But learning arises from changes in the connections between brain cells – development of neural pathways. Hence mere addition of new cells doesn’t lead to learning automatically. In fact, most of the new neurons die in absence of any use – following the principle of “use it or throw it”

5. Mental capacity is something one is born with and cannot be changed

Mental abilities do have a genetic component. But they are also heavily influenced by environmental factors. Also rely on adequate experience in order to develop. This is a misconception that the brain is static, unchanging, and set before you start school. Our brains grow, change, and adapt at all times in our lives (Neuroplasticity)

6. When we sleep, the brain shuts down

Patterns of brain activity shift when we go to sleep, but the brain is active 24 hours a day, whether we are sleeping or awake. While sleeping, brain undertakes memory consolidation

7. Brain can efficiently multitask handling multiple challenging tasks

The brain can’t attend to two or more attention-rich stimuli simultaneously. We pay continuous partial attention in an effort not to miss anything. It is an always-on, anywhere, anytime, anyplace behaviour that involves an artificial sense of constant crisis. Simply put, multitasking doesn’t work.

8. Forgetting part of memory is an impediment to learning

Forgetting is a perfectly normal part of memory. In fact, it's a necessary part of memory. We make memories all the time – while attending an educational course, the process of committing something to memory is a very deliberate & intentional process. But most of the time, the process of memory happens just automatically - whatever you attend to, you form some representation of what's happened to you. Over time, the pruning system of brain clears memories that are not refreshed or are not associated with some events that had high emotional value, giving room for new memories. Normal brain development doesn’t just involve growth, but also the selective loss of brain cells and connections that are not being used (also known as pruning).

This is a sample list of neuromyths out of hundreds. As neuroscience throws newer lights to brain functions, more neuromyths will get identified. Educators need to be aware of these neuromyths and correct their beliefs accordingly.

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