Curious and Creative

Tag: learning

  • Curiosity Can Change Your Brain Health for the Better

    February 6, 2025

    image from freepik.com

    Did you know that curiosity can change your brain health for the better?

    “Curiosity is a crucial aspect of managing your mind, which is the driving life force,” stated Dr. Caroline Leaf, a clinical neuroscientist.

    Research has found that curiosity plays a key role in stimulating brain activity. It helps form new neural connections. It also enhances learning and memory by activating the brain’s reward system and promoting dopamine release. Due to these changes, curiosity can increase your well-being and longevity.

    Curiosity is such a basic component of our nature, that we are oblivious to its pervasiveness in our lives stated neuroscientists Celeste Kidd and Benjamin Hayden who authored the psychological study “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity.”

    Interest in the impact of curiosity has spread, and more research is being conducted on curiosity and its impact on our brains. Other researchers have found that curiosity plays a fundamental role for learning and memory. Matthias Gruber and Charan Ranganath, researchers at UC Davis, summarized that the neural mechanisms that stimulate curiosity and its effect on memory are poorly understood.

    In 2014 psychology researchers conducted and published a study on curiosity at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. One of the leading researchers, Dr. Amy Reichelt, wrote that stimulating curiosity is important across all ages, from schools to the workplace to senior living and elder care. These research findings will implicate areas such as medicine and education.

    UNSW study findings revealed three things:

    First, when people are curious to learn the answer to a question, they are better at learning the added information.

    Second, when curiosity is stimulated, there is an increase in hippocampus activity. The hippocampus is the region of the brain associated with memory.

    Third, when curiosity is stimulated there is increased activity in regions of the brain that are associated with reward.

    “Asking questions and being curious about everything that is your life is absolutely key and fundamental to how we function as humans,” stated Leaf, who added that curiosity helps you move forward, grow, improve your autonomy, and develop a deeper and richer understanding of yourself.

    My personal research findings reveal that nurturing a habit on inquiry will help keep your mind sharp as we age, reducing cognitive decline. I am learning more about neuroscience and how our brains react biologically to curious stimulation. Here is to be cultivating your curiosity each day. It will do your brain well.

    Resources:

    “Chasing Curiosity as We Age.” Adlen Network. Posted October 1, 2024. Retrieved on 2/2/2025 from https://www.alden.com/chasing-curiosity-as-we-age/#:~:text=It%20promotes%20cognitive%20health.,is%20critical%20for%20mental%20health.

    Grazer, Brian and

    Gruber MJ, Ranganath C. “How Curiosity Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Memory: The Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Exploration.” (PACE) Framework. Trends Cogn Sci. 2019 Dec;23(12):1014-1025. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.10.003. Epub 2019 Nov 7. PMID: 31706791; PMCID: PMC6891259.

    Kidd, Celeste, and Benjamin Hayden. “The Psychology and Neuroscience of Curiosity” Neuron, Volume 88, Issue 3, 449 – 460. Retrieved on 2/2/2025 from https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0896-6273%2815%2900767-9

    Leaf, Dr. Carol. “Surprising Benefits of Curiosity.” Podcast episode #554. Retrieved on 1/31/2025 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUQKqLFAk4g

    Leaf, Dr. Carol. Retrieved on 1/31/2025 from https://drleaf.com/blogs/news/the-surprising-benefits-of-curiosity

    Reichelt, Amy. “Curiosity Changes the Brain to Boost Memory and Learning.” Posted on October 3, 2014. Retrieved on 2/2/2025 from https://www.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/news/2014/10/curiosity-changes-the-brain-to-boost-memory-and learning#:~:text=The%20curious%20mind%20is%20a%20vortex%20for%20information&text=It%20seems%20that%20in%20the,the%20time%2C%E2%80%9D%20she%20said.

  • Do You Ask Questions?

    January 13, 2025

    Did you know that a four-year-old asks between 200 and 300 questions a day?  According to a report by Harvard based psychologist Paul Harris, a child can ask around 40 thousand questions between 2 to 4 years of age. Asking questions, particularly “why” questions, is a crucial part of a child’s language development and learning process.

    Yet, between childhood and adulthood, the number of questions adults ask diminishes greatly. Adults ask an average of six questions a day. As a curious person and writer, I ask a lot of questions, but I was astounded at that low average.  Frankly, I am saddened that more adults aren’t asking more questions. If childlike wonder is indicative of the number of questions asked, adults’ sense of wonder dissipates so drastically as we age.

    Although children look to adults as teachers, wrote Regan Olsson, we often don’t consider what kids could be teaching us.

    Olsson interviewed Kristine Gotto, Ph.D., Psychologist at the University Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona. She shared that one life lesson we can learn from kids is to be curious and excited. Being inquisitive is how children learn, as they aren’t burdened with worry or hindered by what others think.

    We can watch kids take risks and be fearless. We can also learn to do it ourselves. Although it may be hard, we can grow a little each day, said Dr. Gotto, adding, life is about learning. If we are willing to be humble, we can learn from what kids can offer us.

    As I mentioned, the average adult may ask six questions a day. There are others who depend on asking questions to improve life, innovate, and become more creative. I have learned that as important as it is to ask questions, it is just as important to the learn the art of asking questions.

    Journalist and author Warren Berger was interviewed in “The Art of Asking Questions,” an educational video on Big Think’s YouTube page. Berger stated it sounds counterintuitive, but questions are becoming more important than answers. The ideas of questions become more important than questions are embraced by Silicon Valley, and other centers of innovation.

    Berger has done his own research. He found at the root and origination of many innovations, there is a great question. Questioning allows us to organize our thinking around what we don’t know.

    “We have so much knowledge, information, and answers at our fingertips,” said Berger. He added it is just as important to ask the right questions as it can help us know what to do with this information.

    As a child, we ask many naïve questions, but as we get older, we learn when it is appropriate to ask questions, and what questions may be considered appropriate in a social setting, states Jonathan Keats, philosopher and author of You Belong to the Universe.

    Keats said to ask a naïve question.  Even if it is in our mind, ask that sort of question. We can let it play out, that process in our minds until it “is more concrete and actionable in an adult responsible way.”

    Questions are a survival skill for all of us, stated Berger.

    Berger has spent a lot of time doing his own research. He discovered that, “In schools, we really value the answers and there is almost no value placed on asking a good question.” Presently, teachers are stretched and stressed to teaching to the test, there is little time for students’ questions that do not relate to the curriculum.  He has is now seeing schools and teachers are addressing the importance of asking questions and trying to deal how schools value asking a good question.  

    Ask dumb questions, said Tim Ferris, investor and author of Tools of the Titans. There is power in the absurd question. Journaling is very important. Ferris said he writes down a question each day, then he writes three to five journal pages answering that question. As you journal, you can come up with interesting ideas. Although ninety percent of what you write in your journal may turn out to be garbage, that other ten percent could lead you in an interesting direction that can revolutionize your business or life.

    Our world and culture are governed by shame and political correctness, commented Ferriss. He has noticed that more and more people are not speaking their minds or asking questions, due to shame and embarrassment. Override the embarrassment of asking that dumb question, and just ask it, said Ferris.

    Perhaps that dumb question that is in your mind, if asked may turn out to be the smartest question because you were the only one who dared to ask it replied Ferris.

    Adults should ask more questions than they do. Curiosity is healthy. Asking lots of questions is healthy. Both spur development and growth, wrote David Benjamin and David Komlos, former contributors to Forbes.com.

    Are you asking questions? I encourage you to be fearless, take risks, ask that question that is on your mind.

    Resources:

    Big Think “The Art of asking the right questions.” Retrieved on 1/10/2025 from the art of asking the right questions | Tim Ferriss, Warren Berger, Hope Jahren & more | Big Think

    Benjamin, David and David Komlos. “Has Your Organization Stopped Asking Questions.” Forbes.com September 26,2022. Retrieved on 1/10/2025 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminkomlos/2022/09/26/has-your-organization-stopped-asking-questions/

    Olsson, Regan, contributing writer. “Four Life Lessons We Can Learn from Kids.” May 19, 2021, Banner Health. Retrieved on 1/10/2025 from https://www.bannerhealth.com/healthcareblog/advise-me/four-life-lessons-we-can-learn-from-kids