Science finds: if you don't get out of your comfort zone, you won't learn anything City Magazine

Human curiosity tends to want to know in advance all the things that will happen in the near future. Uncertainty does not allow us to prepare for different circumstances, but it is therefore very useful for us.

New research conducted at an American university Yale, was published in the magazine A neuron. She proved that situations outside of our comfort zone help get the most out of our brains. If we are not under certain pressure during our work, our brain stops using its ability to learn.

Scientists are conducting an experiment taught a group of monkeys to hit targets in exchange for tasty juice. When the monkeys knew in advance which targets the refreshments were hidden behind, they were successful in as many as 80 % cases. When the researchers reshuffled the targets each time, it the frequency of successful hits varied throughout.

A team of neuroscientists looked closely at brain activity in monkeys. She found that in the first case, the parts of the brain associated with learning, so to speak stopped working. A completely opposite phenomenon occurred in another case, when brain activity increased significantly.

The brain is more efficient in uncertain situations.

The findings are logical in their own right. When humans figure out what behavior is most appropriate in a given environment, we often stop devoting time to learning.

Therefore, stability in life is not very useful. In many areas, such as the work career, we have to constantly acquire new knowledge. If we want to achieve greater success, we must to step out of the comfort zone and face new challenges.

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How to introduce a certain amount of uncertainty into life?

You can stimulate the functioning of your brain with various activities. We suggest you try the following approaches:

Med traveling abroad you will get to know new places, cultures and people.
If you want to change the daily routine, you don't need to do anything special. Any activity that you have not done before will be welcome.
If you decide to you start working on a new project, success is guaranteed. Even if you don't manage to complete the task the way you set out to do, you will learn a lot from your mistakes.
Talking to people with whom you disagree on many things, will strengthen empathy and expand horizons.