GREAT ADAPTATIONS

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Take Your Brain Through the Door

What’s the newest thing you’ve experienced in the past thirty days? Did you meet someone intriguing? Discover that you like digital photography? Grapple with a new language? Notice a flower blooming in the crack in the driveway?

If you can’t think of anything, I’ve got some news for you. Not good news. Your brain, which is designed to reach and stretch and grow, is just sitting there. Tick, tock, like a perpetual clock, mechanically strolling through its daily paces. Stick to this path of blandness and your brain is headed for the Laziness Hall of Fame. There it will be rewarded the Atrophy Trophy.

Boldness Counts

Eric R. Kandel, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2000), puts it beautifully in an article originally published in Scientific American Mind. To paraphrase: “Few experiences excite and stimulate the imagination more than discovering something new, no matter how modest… It is important to be bold. One should tackle difficult problems, especially those that initially appear messy and unstructured. One should not fear trying new things, such as moving from one field to another or working at the boundaries of disciplines — where the most interesting problems often emerge.”

A Craving for the New

Viewed in this light, I realize why I never stop exploring the brain. Mr. Kandel points out that his yen for the messy problem has shielded him from the midcareer malaise some of his scientist colleagues suffered. His friend Richard Axel, a neuroscientist who won the Nobel in 2004, discovered that there are 1,000 different receptors for smell. He speaks about the addictive quality of reviewing in one’s mind new and interesting findings. “Unless Richard sees new data coming along, he becomes despondent…”

What’s behind Door Number 3? The unknown, a new road, a challenge to body or mind? What new data will keep your brain on its growth edge, reaching to understand?

Good cheer,

Suzanna Stinnett