The Study of the Brain

It is well known that the technological devices have a big impact on or brains but no one really knows the fact that they have a worse impact than we may actually think they do. In order to realize the difference from a natural brain, as one that is not under the use of these kind of technological devices and the brain that is subjected to the use of mobile devices, of iPod’s, of MP3 players etc, a team of five neuroscientists decided to make a journey.

Mr. Braver one of the scientists from this team decided to take a trip in the remote area of Southern Utah, while as well rafting the San Juan River. This trip’s goal was to understand the effect the electronic devices have on our brains and whether these effects could be reversed by pending time in such a quiet place where they did not have access to cell phones, to the e-mail not to mention laptops or other gadgets.

Being far away from civilization, not having to worry about checking and answering their cell phones, looking on the internet to see the latest headlines, and just be there with themselves and for themselves, will logically trigger an unwind feeling, a feeling of tranquility and a better sleep. These are the most logical things that are to happen if you stay and think about it.

Anyhow, not each of the five scientist believe that a week of a vacation like this will do you any good and will completely change and affect you brain. The human body and brain is made to be flexible and to get used to every new situation it finds itself in.

Whereas, David Strayer, the person that has organized the trip, strongly believes that the results of their study will be an important step into the human’s science. This study will include the effect that resting our brains has o attention, memory and learning. Attention is the main thing that the human brain depends on and all the actions that go from there – “Everything that you’re conscious of, everything you let in, everything you remember and you forget, depends on it.”

The things that they are about to discover is the great impact that technology and all those devices have on affections like deficit disorders, schizophrenia and depression.

Anyhow, as the trip has begun, not all of them follow and expect to find the same cause. They are split in two, the believers –those that expect to find that technology under any circumstance has a bad effect on the brain, and the ones that believe that the differences to be found, are not as big as some may believe.

The believers are Mr. Strayer and Paul Atchley, a 40 years old professor at the University of Kansas. They think and strongly belief that technology will inhibit the development of many teenagers and as well will trigger them to have a feeling of anxiety.   the solution for this is that they go more often out in the nature and forget about their home technologies.

Amongst them there are the skeptics, which are strongly convinced that this trip will show them no more than they already knew, and this is why they do not find any sense in it. This group is formed from Mr. Braver – a 41 years old brain imaging expert; Steven Yantis, a 54 years old person who is the chairman of the psychological and brain science department at John Hopkins and as well Art Kramer, a 57 years old man, professor at the University of Illinois.

As they could not leave on their own, they as well had to take a photographer and a reporter with them, as well as a painter that helps Mr. Strayer lead the hourney.

While Mr. Kramer checks his email often, they start having the discussion about how “urgent” is “urgent” notion significance? The notion of “urgent” was therefore redefined by the development of technology. This is by no means a good thing, as redefining this notion, can make almost everything be urgent and make it impossible for you to treat everything in an urgent manner. It is physically impossible, while technology can more; a man is not use to this.

As Mr. Kramer shows that he just cannot live without being focused and having the latest news, it just shows the addiction that these little things have created on us and the fact that we simply cannot get it through our heads that something can be done to decrease the importance of technology.

The team decides to go and check up the river side and to stay some few days out there. They will have no civilization contact no possibility of cell phones contact anything in these parts of the world. But, they believe this will give them the opportunity to better understand what they are looking for. While standing there, they remember a seminar that was held at the University of Michigan according to which, there is a better possibility for people to learn while walking in the woods than after a long day in the traffic.

This is because, while being in an urban setting your brain is under a lot of pressure, it tries to concentrate on various things at once and it therefore, it senses fatigue and it loses its capacity to do anything good and to concentrate on something in particular. This is how, staying connected to the nature, it helps your brain restore itself, it will be a way to refresh a little and to see that there is more to it than just the technological gadgets that surround you. Nature, can therefore, contribute to the brain refreshing: “Our senses change. They kind of recalibrate — you notice sounds, like these crickets chirping; you hear the river, the sounds, the smells, you become more connected to the physical environment, the earth, rather than the artificial environment.” as Mr. Strayer puts it.

The new machines that have been put in practice allow the scientists to see what changes occur in the brain while doing an activity such as listening to music or watching television. According to some behavioral studies, it was shown, that performance has to suffer from the fact that people actually do multitasking things. This will lead you to not be able to do any one of those things properly. It is essential that the attention should know when to be posted as more stimulation arrives.

But as the working memory of a person is concentrated mainly on one thing, it will no longer be able to anticipate other arising problems. As far as a thing is occupying the most part of your working memory, you will have less space left to start your storing and your integrating ideas.

In the third day of sitting and tackling on the mind and on the brain, Mr. Kramer has already forgotten about his e-mails and focuses on the environment and on relaxing his brain. It is what Mr. Staryer calls the “third- day syndrome”. It is that stage of relaxation that all the travelers have reached and they feel good and rested. despite of the fact that the majority of them were rather skeptical about this whole thing, Now, they have become believers and they are about to accept the fact that something is most definitely happening with their brains and this is the effect that living in an environment without any electronic gadgets has on them.

As they have to to the final day of their experience, each one of them has reached a certain conclusion. The skeptical ones, found that nature actually helped their brains relax and that it did not asked so much from their brains such as technical devices do. Whatever, the situation they may be in, they most certainly left those places with a far more rested brain than they would have though in the beginning.

Something most definitely had impact on their brains as they feel different, but this is something that they are about to analyze and just then let us know what they have actually discovered.

Despite of the fact that each of them has arrived to different conclusions and they have but yet the means to explain why nature has that effect on our brains, it is useful to know that each and one of them has strengthened the idea from which they actually started the trip. It is useful to know that having such small trips in the middle of the nature, without letting any technological gadget interrupt your brains relaxation, will make a better, new and refreshed you.

Gadgets are indispensable these days but they can be left aside from time to time, for you own health.