Posted on 05/26/2010 7:50:12 AM PDT by Superstu321
While scouring the internet for something that angered me enough to write about, I came across this pretty sweet study:
‘Thirst for knowledge’ may be opium craving The brain’s reward for getting a concept is a shot of natural opiates
Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix.
The “click” of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist.
“While you’re trying to understand a difficult theorem, it’s not fun,” said Biederman, professor of neuroscience in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
“But once you get it, you just feel fabulous.”
The brain’s craving for a fix motivates humans to maximize the rate at which they absorb knowledge, he said. ____
Frankly, if this is true, it explains a lot. People are so knowledge/concept driven that it really makes you question what the payoff is for knowing so much. Well a little hit some chemical opiates is a pretty good payoff I’d say. I’m going to try and teach my self something new everyday, maybe this way I’ll be a little bit more pleasant.
While I have absolutely zero idea if any of this is even remotely true, to a layman such as myself it seems like it could be a good reason why education is so damn stimulating. Schools that don’t teach anything rewarding to students get bad students. The schools that push students to grasp new ideas and concepts get well-rounded, purpose driven, students.
(Excerpt) Read more at threefingersofpolitics.com ...
This of course is the reason the teacher’s unions are against merit pay. They don’t want kids to learn and therefore get high. They are trying to prevent addictions. /s
Interesting theory. Just don’t let the kids find out!
Hahaha! thats great!
I could have told’em that...long time knowledge searching junkie...
No doubt news junkies get a similar natural fix.... Does that make Jim Thompson a pusher? :-)
I’m a member of Education Anonymous.
I was careful in school. I didn’t inhale.
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