Busting common myths about the human mind

Our existence is dependent on the functioning of the most vital part of our body - our brain. We try our best to understand the workings of this complex organ, and unfortunately, we all fail. Today, I shall try to make you understand why.

Let us begin with what our parents make us believe is the most fundamental rule about studying: Your brain functions at its best early in the morning, so we should optimise this time to exercise our minds rather than lounge on a comfortable sofa and binge watch the latest show on Netflix, or is that just me?

Today, I shall make all my fellow teenagers' lives a whole lot less miserable. The "fundamental rule" of studying is only partly true. While our brain is indeed at its energetic prime in the morning, it is also most prone to distractions at this time.

Let us look at this logically: When our brain is active, it is wandering to all realms of the imagination. This distorts our focus, rather than improving it. A tired mind is probably a better state to be in, as it is focused on finishing the job and receiving some much deserved rest.

So, to all parents who had the misfortune of stumbling upon this paragraph, I urge you all to take this in and give your children the benefit of the doubt when they say, "We'll do it later.”

Moving on, it is time where I ask a rhetorical question only to answer it and prove my intelligence. Can our brain multitask? To all of your who are nodding your heads with confidence, I promise you an unpleasant surprise.

While it is a common belief that we can do multiple tasks at once, researchers at the University of Michigan have proved it to be scientifically impossible.

They have concluded that our brain diverts its attention from one task to another at incredible speeds, rather than giving equal importance to both.

Scientists used an MRI scanner to capture images of a brain while it was made to perform functions. Each function was colour-coded to make the observations substantial. At the end, they observed the brain rapidly switching from one activity to another, removing all attention from the previous one and diverting it to the one at hand.

This is said to be an evolutionary trait, as our lives require us to often consider multiple options, not at once but one after the other.