CogniFit's Science blog: Probing Secrets Of The Human Mind

Probing Secrets Of The Human Mind

The human mind is truly remarkable. Scientists have intensely studied the brain, but are still unable to find where the mind exactly is. The brain has around 100 billions brain cells and its potential is unlimited! (even if people still believe the fact that we only use 10% of our mental capability...this is not the case and it would be very hard to quantify it precisely).

Let us simplify and described the human mind by differentiating two parts: the conscious mind and the subconscious mind. The conscious mind is composed of our thinking, communication and general thought throughout the day. It is believed that we think at a rate of over 1,200 words a minute (another estimate which you should take with a pinch of salt).

The subconscious mind uses all of our 'automatic' functions: heart rate, breathing, digestion. It also documents all thoughts and experiences we have ever had in our lives. More than 80% of our brain’s capacity seems to be taken up by the subconscious mind. The subconscious has no reasoning power per se and cannot reject anything that it is told. Still, the subconscious mind remembers everything perfectly.

This is why many police forces use hypnotism to force memories out of the subconscious. Sometime the subconscious mind memorizes a fact incorrectly, such as a word you are constantly spelling wrong. Chances are you will always spell that word wrong until you can correct it there.

The conscious mind is mostly active when we are awake. It is responsible for all of our decision making processes. It decides what we will do, often based on past subconscious experiences. This constantly help to reassures us that the correct action has been taken. There is no memory capacity in the conscious mind. It only deals in the “now”.

We can use our minds to locate information we need. Have you ever bumped into someone and could not remember their name, even though they look familiar? Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and remember their name? The human mind is always working. Sometimes it just takes longer to retrieve that information.

The human mind is said to file everything away. We just don’t always know how to make our mind work correctly. Sometimes our recall and memories are wrong (we tend to alter our own memories with the passage of time).

This is the decade of the brain and the mind. More doctors, scientists and researchers are working to unlock the mysteries of the mind that ever before. Hopefully, discoveries will help us better understand how conscious reality interacts with the external world to provide clues that will unlock the secrets of the human mind’s amazing resilience.

New developments in psychology are finding links between what we think and its relationship to the quality of our lives. The way we behave is intertwined with our thoughts and feelings. This affects our moods and overall outlook on life and remind us, once again, the need to keep a healthy brain!