Your Brain Is Like a Computer, take 357 – Education & Teacher Conferences Skip to main content

Your Brain Is Like a Computer, take 357

AdobeStock_96435896_Credit

Because brains are so complicated, people who explain them routinely search for analogies.

  • Your brain is like a muscle: practice makes it grow stronger.
  • Your brain is like an orchestra, and the prefrontal cortex is the conductor.
  • Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is like MiracleGro for synapses.

All such analogies have weaknesses; a few of them have their uses. Most often, the brain is so amazingly unusual that it’s like itself and nothing else.

This article from Science Magazine, however, offers a precise and unusual analogy (and, an unusually precise analogy): your brain is like the internet. Specifically, the way long-term memories strengthen (and weaken) resembles control of information flow on the internet.

Especially if you’re technology savvy, you might enjoy this particular comparison.

If you’ve got brain analogies that you especially like — or don’t like — you might put them in the comments below.


Recent Blogs

Interleaving Meets Prequestioning: A Powerful Combination for Learning?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

A few weeks ago, I wrote about an intriguing research...

From Facts to Application: The Surprising Power of Repeated Retrieval
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

The more time you've spent in Learning and the Brain...

From Lab to Life: Testing Study Strategies with 2,500+ Real Students
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

Research-based conclusions often appeal to us because of their tidy...