bee-kurt

[bee-kurt]

Learning How To Learn To Learn More Efficiently, The Link Between Our Guts and Brains

The day before yesterday, I was in Istanbul to hang out with my boyfriend. We had a great time together, and watched Wolverine & Deadpool. The opening scene was my second favorite, and my first favorite is a big spoiler, so I'm not telling you, but it has to do with a cameo. Anyway, while I was away, my mom apparently deep cleaned my room and unearthed some of my post-it notes that have fallen down some unseen places. One of the notes said, "Learning how to learn - Coursera".

It was a note I took while I was scrolling through Twitter. I remember the moment I took it, even, I just forgot about it later on. Now that I found it, I went and actually started the course.

In the course, the instructors teach you about the two modes of the brain, the focused mode and the diffuse mode, and how they cannot be present at the same time. The diffuse mode is a more free mode, where the brain just creates ideas. I imagine that mood as a rainbow explosion of new thoughts and solutions. Meanwhile during the focused mode, I don't think I need to explain this one. Here's an article that explains these modes.

But basically, when you are walking or daydreaming, this diffuse mode takes over. It's actually my favorite mode. I just learned about these terms today, but I kind of knew they existed, in my heart, because walking, watching outside while in a moving vehicle, even playing subway surfers makes me think and generate thoughts in a more free and fun way. Also, when I am focused on my story, I seem to never generate new, creative things, but they mostly come to me while I am traveling or when I'm about to sleep.

I also learned about how sleep impacts the way we learn, and most importantly, how it impacts the quality of our brain health. According to a study on mice, during sleep, our brain fluid washes away the harmful waste proteins that build up while we are awake.

The module 1 also reveals more about procrastination and the pomodoro technique. It's not something I have tried, and I really do not think it will work on me, but I'm beginning to think that maybe I should give it a shot, after all. A neuroscientist is telling me it works, and who am I to judge before trying it?

The instructor, Barbara Oakley, recommends the site 'brainfacts.org' during one of her videos. I added the site to my Feedly, which is a nice app if you want to get notified on specific subjects. There, I found an article on the connection between gut bacteria and Parkinson's disease. Apparently the lower amount of a bacteria that helps break down plant-based fiber and the abundance of certain bacteria in the guts might be linked to dying of neurons in the brain, a.k.a, the Parkinson's disease. Here is the article.

New word I learned: "inoculate: immunize (someone) against a disease by introducing infective material, microorganisms, or vaccine into the body"

This article also has a link to another article with the title "The growing link between microbes, mood and mental health". My mom always said that the gut is my second brain, but I mostly thought she was exaggerating until a few years ago, when I was depressed for like, a few days when I had diarrhea, and I was normal when it passed.

The article mentions a small study done regarding diet and quality of mental health. They make a group of people (stressed students) follow a psychobiotic diet rich in fiber and probiotics, but these people do not know what they are eating these food for. The result is that the one ones who followed the diet better had their stress levels reduced more.

"What we’ve found is that the more diverse your diet, the more diverse your microbiome, and the better your health when you get old." - John Cryan

"We’ve done a study in mice where we adjusted their diet to contain much more inulin, a fiber that we know supports the growth of beneficial bacterial strains, and found we could dampen down the neuroinflammation that is often associated with cognitive decline in aging. This fiber is present in our everyday diet — there is a lot of it in vegetables like leeks, artichokes and chicory. So perhaps if you’re thinking of having a midlife crisis, forget about the motorbike and start growing vegetables." - John Cryan

At the end of the module 1, there is a "further readings" part. I haven't taken a look at them all, but I saved them to my Pocket to read it on my Kobo later.

Here is a list (direct copy of the articles I thought sounded interesting from the Coursera section):

Badre, David, "Tips from Neuroscience to Keep you focused on hard tasks", Nature, 2021-03-15 doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-00606-x

Scott Young, "I was wrong about speed reading: Here are the facts," January 2015. This excellent blog post nicely summarizes what is known in relation to speed reading.

John Dunlosky, "Strengthening the Student Toolbox: Study Strategies to Boost Learning," American Educator, Fall, 2013. This excellent, comprehensive article is written by one of the top researchers in learning.

Michael Friedman, "Note-taking tools and tips," (October 15, 2014), Harvard Initiative for Learning and Teaching. This article, and an article embedded within it, ("Notes on Note-Taking: Review of Research and Insights for Students and Instructors"), have very useful insights into how to improve your note taking.

John Hamilton. (October 17, 2013). "Brains Sweep Themselves Clean of Toxins During Sleep." NPR All Things Considered.

Anne Trafton. (July 21, 2014), "Try, try again? Study says no: Trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language, neuroscientists find." Science Daily.

This is it for today, thank you for reading

[bee-kurt]

Discovering The Talents of My Scanner-slash-Printer

I went to Japan around the beginning of June.

You know, I'm many things, and one of the main things that in my opinion make me, me, is the way I love collecting stuff. So of course during my trip in Japan I kept most of the receipts, packages and brochures and such.

When I was studying in Korea, I did the same; and I made a very nice journal with all the stuff I kept and collected. The journal I chose was also the perfect choice; a soft cover notebook with thick, sturdy papers; just the best fit to glue paper on.

This time around, though, I could not for the life of me find such a notebook. To be honest with you, I did not really look for it hard enough. There were lots of things that I could not keep my attention on one thing for too long to form a useful thought (exaggeration). Two candidates were Muji notebooks that looked just like passports, I got all 3 colors, green, red and black, and a Traveler's Company notebook that is tall and honestly nice. But I really could not design them, no matter how hard I brainstormed. What if it come out bad? What if I think of a better way to design the paper right after I glued them?

Maybe the fact that I lived in Korea for months, meanwhile I only spent time in Japan for like a week made me treasure the stuff I got from Japan more.

Then, just the other day, probably on Instagram, I saw someone scanning their receipts, tickets, packages and such, turning them into digital files. It was a very "wow, this is genius" moment for me. I mean, I already knew my printer had a scanner. I scanned documents countless times on the device. But I never thought of using it that way.

Today I finally got to scan them on my printer. I think they look very unique and cute, and I will do more compositions once I'm inspired. I do have a few more ideas, and even though the amount of them first overwhelmed me, now I wish I collected even more stuff. I guess I have to go back to Japan again...

[bee-kurt]

Volcanoes, Mountains and Human Imagination

I love writing. Even though I don't always write, I still do enjoy creating stories and worlds in the comfort of my mind. There is one big project that I saved inside the creative folder inside my brain, and the city where the main character lives in is a village inside of a volcano cave. To be honest, I was not sure how that would work out at first. Then, during some quality time with my family, I saw the ruins of an old city. It's called Yazılıkaya, also known as the Midas City. According to historians, it was a pretty significant place for Hititian people and others. This place that had unique shape and geographical features fascinated me and gave me inspiration.

Unfortunately that was not enough. I started researching mountains and volcanoes, and that made me realize how much I love mountains. Actually, when I think about it, it was always there. When I was living in Antalya, the Bey Mountain range always fascinated me. Or, in one of the Hobbit movies, the scene where the mountains fought is still a scene I remember in awe. I knew I loved caves, and loving mountains only made sense.

When I first saw the picture of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, I felt my heart beat. It's such a beautiful mountain that I wanted to cry. It's a shield volcano, and instead of the usual cone-shaped volcanoes that are called stratovolcanoes, these shield volcanoes are wider, and they look less intimidating. Their shapes resemble that of a shield, which is why they are called that. Despite their unconspicuous looks, in this case, Mauna Loa's, it is the biggest volcano on Earth. This fact is especially very interesting to me.

Mountains and volcanoes are magnificient entities. The nature and the Earth, are also magnificient, and it reminds me of a quote by Neil deGrasse Tyson: "Imagination alone is not enough, because the reality of nature is far more wondrous than anything we can imagine."

I first read this quote a long time ago, and every time I see something magnificient, incredible and beautiful in nature, in universe, I again realize how true the statement is.

Written: 23.07.2024