My Brain, Exposed

I’ve noticed that, though I feel I’m a moderately intelligent person, I sometimes have a hard time processing information in an orderly fashion. This is perhaps why I have a tendency to avoid math and numbers. I quite enjoy learning about physics and science, but only on a conceptual level. Once it gets down to the actual numbers, my brain tries it’s best to change the subject. So after a long day at work (or back in school) when I’m forced to think in an organized manner for an extended period of time, my brain gets exhausted. At first I thought I just have a lazy brain. Then I thought it could be ADD. But now I’ve thought of a third possible culprit: maybe it’s actually in the thinking process itself. Thinking is all about different parts of the brain communicating with each other, right? Well, what if my neural pathways aren’t very organized or efficient? What if instead of going right from point A to point B, like we’ll suppose the brain of an organized person would do, mine makes detours? Like when your computer starts going slow and you have to defragment it. I could be way off, but here’s why this idea makes sense to me:

I’m fairly creative. I’m sure we all know people who are totally creative but completely scatter-brained. I’m not that extreme on either side, but these individuals help prove my point, which is that if those neural pathways are going all over instead of down the predictable course, it stands to reason there might be some unpredictable (i.e. creative, or “outside the box”) solutions as a result.

I’m easily distracted. And I don’t mean by external stimuli. In the process of thinking of one thing, I often find myself thinking about something completely different. It makes it really hard to focus sometimes.

I have a really good memory. Isn’t memory also about how well your neurons are networked? It’s probably not that simple, but it seems like if you have more connections in place, there are more possible detours to distract you.

Thinking hard is tiring. I can only take it in small doses. Working your brain, firing those synapses, it takes energy. If my inefficient, disorderly neuron communication is making more of my brain work than is necessary, it’s going to take it out of me. Who knows, maybe thinking is what keeps me so skinny.

So, I’d like to see a study with 3D brain scans of people doing math problems of varying degrees of complexity, see how much activity is going on up there. If my little hypothesis is correct, those of us with disorganized minds will use more brainpower and brain area to come up with the answers. Yeah, I’d be curious to see such a study, Well, the results anyway, presented in a concise couple of paragraphs.

For the record, I like my brain. It has its strengths too. But sometimes I wish I could focus better. Yeah, it’s probably just ADD.