5 Simple Ways To Boost Our Intelligence

by Sabrina Stierwalt, PhD: Popular media is full of suggestions on how to improve our brain health and cognition. But can we really boost our intelligence? The ‘selfish brain’ theory of evolution describes our brains as taking the energy it needs, typically in the form of glucose, before doling out what remains to the rest of the body. In other words, the brain selfishly prioritizes its own needs which are comparably high. A recent study from the University of Cambridge put this theory to the test by challenging elite rowers to perform a memory task and a physical rowing task, first separately and then at the same time. Performance in both the memory-related and the physical tasks decreased when the students attempted to accomplish them simultaneously, but their rowing suffered far more than their ability to recall words for the memory task. On average, the participants showed a 30% greater drop in their physical strength than in their cognitive abilities , suggesting the brain does in fact take what it needs first when resources become scarce. Although the selfish brain theory has been proposed as a possible origin for physical issues like obesity, it may also push back against the idea that we are stuck with an innate level of intelligence. If we can count on our brains to demand our body’s limited resources, can we also count on them to continue to improve even once we’re done growing in adulthood? A common brain myth is that we only use 10% of our brain . I have certainly heard this statistic and a study from only a few years ago showed that as many as 65% of Americans believe it to be true. However, neurologists at the Mayo Clinic note that throughout the course of the day, we use […]

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