How to become more intelligent? The great debate on intelligence is a long and complicated one.
For centuries, people have tried to discover how to increase their very own intellect. But now, thanks to recent advances in neuroscience on intelligence, psychologists have discovered multiple ways to incur neurogenesis or the growing of one’s brain cells.
I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.
~Maya Angelou
The History of Neurogenesis Explained
Not long ago, the prevailing opinion among scientists on growing new brain cells was that it simply was not possible. Till this day, there is a common misconception that we are born with only a set number of neurons (brain cells) and from that point on, we only lose neurons as we age. This is true to an extent because we do lose neurons as we age and most parts of the human brain don’t grow new cells. However, a bold scientist discovered something truly miraculous: mammalian creatures can grow new brain cells.
During the 1970s, Michael Kaplan was conducting research on baby rats and how they grew brain cells. But what he discovered after years of research into the neuroscience of their brains was that the rats were actually growing new brain cells. Now, how could this happen? For years, scientists had a firm belief that mammalian animals could not reproduce their brain cells.
But that’s where Kaplan’s research got interesting — he found out that it’s not the mature brain cells replicating. Instead, it’s the neural stem cells in your brain that turn into new brain cells. These special type of cells remain in your brain your entire life, meaning you are technically capable of forming new brain cells throughout your entire life.
So How Exactly Do We Increase Intellect?
Till the 1990s, Kaplan had published 19 scientific papers on his findings, but the scientific community didn’t agree on the fact that neurogenesis was indeed possible. During that time, the psychological world was asking how exactly we get brain cells to grow and then stop them from dying off.
One of the largest problems associated with aging is that our brain cells die off and they’re gone forever. So if there’s a way to grow new brain cells and keep them alive — then intellect can theoretically be increased.
The long hidden answer to the grand question on how to become more intelligent was hidden in Kaplan’s 19 scientific journals. In the journals, the scientist went on to explain that the answer to maintaining new brain cells lied in the environment. Specifically, a rich and nurturing environment where the brain can be stimulated for long amounts of time.
Kaplan illustrated several different experiments involving caged animals where some had no toys and others had learning exercises and stimulating toys. In every single one of his caged animal experiments, the results were always the same. The animals that participated in the learning tasks and consistently played with toys demonstrated increased brain cell growth and maintenance of their mature cells.
Meaning that our environment plays a much larger role in determining our intellect than our genes do. There is no doubt that both play an essential role in our intelligence, but the lack of a stimulating environment will, without doubt, hamper your abilities to become more intelligent.
Practical Ways to Become More Intelligent
Now that we know that a rich environment filled with learning and stimulating tasks is the real path to getting smarter — how about learning some basic tasks that will induce neurogenesis?
Meditation
Through advanced imaging and MRI’s of people during meditation, scientists discovered that even 10 minutes of quiet mindfulness a day induces the formation of new brain cells. The reason being because during our earlier forms in evolution, it was an essential skill to be mindfully present in the moment. In fact, those who spent too much time “in their heads” were more likely to get attacked and ultimately die. So because of this, our brain evolved so that it not only likes being present in the moment but actually grows when you are focused and absolved in the present second.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Many of you may have noticed that people who regularly exercise tend to be happier and capable of computing at a higher speed. This is no coincidence and it has to do with the fact that working out your heart strengthens your nerve cells. In case you didn’t notice, ‘Neuro’ actually means nerves. Meaning that your brain cells are actually called nerve cells. And the reason that recent research now supports that doing at least 30 minutes of cardio a day significantly boosts your brain’s ability to create new neurons.
Positive Flow of Thoughts
Yes, you heard me right, thinking positive thoughts can literally grow your brain cells. And a surpassingly large amounts of people don’t seem to understand how toxic thinking and feeling negatively actually is.
Let me explain stress for a second. When your body begins to go into fight or flight mode, your brain releases a chemical called cortisol. This neurotransmitter is great when fighting off a tiger — but deadly when sitting at your office. The reason being because cortisol not only shuts down the parts of the brain that create new brain cells but actually begins killing off matured neurons.
So stop the negative thinking and start thinking of the cup as half full. You brain literally delights in the feelings of warmth and assurance. That’s what allows your olfactory bulbs and hippocampus to create new brain cells and ultimately increase your intellect so that you no longer get stumped at where your keys are or how to feel better after a break up.
What other science-backed ways to become more intelligent do you know? Share your thoughts with us!
Great article!!!
We have seen the power of positive thoughts and meditation in action true believers. :)
We find that ALCAR and learning a new language really helped make our brains feel fresh. We actually feel like our memory is 20 years younger.
The article is a little bit flawed and misleading… While the mentioned practices do increase neurogenesis, the creation of new brain cells, it doesn’t necessarily mean the faster creation of brain cells increases your intelligence. Here is a very interesting explanation:
https://www.quora.com/Does-promoting-neurogenesis-have-positive-effects-on-intelligence-or-other-traits
Besides, we only produce around 700 new brain cells each day, so if you live 70 years you will be only able to get around 18 millions, which makes only 0,00021% of 86 billion brain cells a human brain has. Even if we could speed up the neurogenesis a 1000 times, we would still only create 0.21% of all our brain cells during an entire lifetime of 70 years. Which means we could only increase our inetlligence by less than 1%, and I think there are other activities (like reading, deep thinking, problem solving) which increase your intelligence by far greater amount.
That’s not to say neurogenesis doesn’t have positive effects. I heard there’s a correlation between slower neurogenesis and depression. I don’t know if the causality is confirmed, but think it’s worth researching the topic further in that direction.
However, studies show that meditation positively affects intelligence by some means which are not necessarily correlated to neurogenesis:
https://www.inc.com/melanie-curtin/want-to-raise-your-iq-by-23-percent-neuroscience-says-to-take-up-this-simple-hab.html
https://scholar.google.hr/scholar?q=meditation+intelligence&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart
So yay for medidative increase of intelligence, but neurogenesis is not necessarily it’s mechanism.