Is it possible to mind travel

But now, thanks to groundbreaking findings in neuroscience, we understand that the outside world can enhance cognitive performance. The scientific term for this is neuroplasticity. So what does this mean for us as people? In the words of Dr. Diamond, it means we're capable of making our brains better and healthier. The secret lies in your environment.

Diamond discovered that rats raised in enriched environments with plenty of toys and other rats to interact with had a thicker cerebral cortex than those raised in impoverished environments with no other rats and objects to play with.

The same principles apply to the human brain. Every enrichment to your environment — from challenging yourself intellectually to gaining new experiences — propels the brain's activity, leading to growth and reorganization. According to science, one of the best ways to enrich our environment is travel.

People tend to get stuck in their daily routines. However, the mind quickly gets bored of doing the same thing over and over again. Luckily, we live in a world with ample opportunity to shake up that routine by getting out and exploring. Every new destination introduces novelty to your mind, activating the cognitive networks that keep your brain healthy. Paul Nussbaum, a clinical neuropsychologist from the University of Pittsburgh.

From the moment you set foot in an unfamiliar place, you're flooded with new experiences. In order to process all these stimuli, you start to train your brain as if it were a muscle. Instead of dumbbells, however, you train with new sights, activities, flavors, people, languages, and more.

When you're traveling, what's going on in your brain? All the novelty that comes with traveling stimulates new connections between nerve cells, which in turn revitalizes your mind. Have you ever come back from a trip abroad and felt like you were born anew? You may be tempted to believe that you can maintain your cognitive powers by taking a few vitamins.

However, according to Harvard Health Publishing , there is little evidence to suggest that supplements actually work. In contrast, travel engages our minds in ways pills never could. People who are open to new experiences tend to perform better on memory and other cognitive tests, and also have better mental health.

So how does travel change your ideas and views? Traveling to new places has three major benefits:. With so many advantages to traveling, you have more reason than ever to start planning your next trip. Raft down a river , ride a horse , dive underwater , or go snowmobiling across a glacier! Activities like these stimulate new connections between nerve cells and help the brain to generate new cells.

The more you challenge your mind, the more it will reward you. And dendrites extensions of neurons that transmit information between different parts of the brain are responsible for how well your brain performs. This three-pound mass, which sent humans to the moon, improves while exploring new environments.

So what about the aging brain? Plasticity continues to adapt throughout your life. Healthy aging is perhaps one of the best gifts you can get in your life. The brain is not immune to aging. Like the rest of our body, the brain changes as we grow older. Once we hit our late 20s, we start to lose neurons — the cells that make up the brain. Besides, there are many steps you can take to improve your brain health, travel being one of them.

Everyone knows that exercise reduces stress, as well as the risk of heart disease. We also know that in order to achieve the desired results, exercise needs to be regular. The same is true for brain plasticity.

To keep the mind sharp as we age, we need to attend the mental gym regularly. How much you're mentally time traveling could depend on how much you relate to these statements:. When you dredge up these thoughts as you plan an event such as a vacation, party, or night on the town, you're priming yourself to let your thoughts wander in a pessimistic direction. It can be hard to change this mindset when you're used to it. It could be a way of subconsciously protecting yourself in case things go wrong, or you might have developed the habit without realising.

Whitbourne said it could also come from feeling guilty about enjoying yourself and taking time off work, or worrying about the expense of the holiday you're planning.

She added that the way to get out of this negative loop is to identify and then try to lessen the bad thoughts that are most likely to dampen your happiness. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options.

Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Lindsay Dodgson. Furthermore, mental time travel is generative, involving the combination and recombination of familiar elements, and in this respect may have been a precursor to language.

Current evidence, although indirect or based on anecdote rather than on systematic study, suggests that nonhuman animals, including the great apes, are confined to a "present" that is limited by their current drive states. In contrast, mental time travel by humans is relatively unconstrained and allows a more rapid and flexible adaptation to complex, changing environments than is afforded by instincts or conventional learning.