25 quotes by neurolinguist Tatiana Chernigovskaya – about the brain and opportunities to improve life

25 quotes by neurolinguist Tatiana Chernigovskaya – about the brain and opportunities to improve life

Why is it important to study constantly and how to stop being bored?

Tatiana Chernigovskaya is a well-known Russian scientist in the field of neuropsychology, Doctor of Biological and Philological Sciences, Honored Scientist of Russia. She was able to popularize the complex but interesting topic of cognitive distortions and neural connections of our brain.

It was Chernigovskaya who in our country brought to a new level of research work aimed at studying the ways of cognition and information processing. She can rightfully be considered an innovator in science. On her initiative in 2000 a narrow specialization of psycholinguistics was opened at the Department of Linguistics of the Philological Faculty of St. Petersburg State University.

This amazing woman has been studying the question of how the human brain works and what influences its functioning for more than 30 years. She believes that a purely medical approach is inadmissible here. In addition to physical and biological research, it is necessary to understand in detail psychology, linguistics, chemistry. One should not forget about advanced neuroscience, including artificial intelligence.

The renowned neurolinguist willingly shares her knowledge not only with students at Russian and foreign universities where she lectures. Tatiana Chernigovskaya is a frequent guest on television. She is the author of numerous books. She even has her own podcast in the lecture hall.

Chernigovskaya in an interview compared the brain to a sponge, which absorbs all the information received from the outside. Therefore, she advised to read only good books, watch good movies, listen to quality music and communicate with balanced intelligent people.

Catch a selection of excerpts from Tatiana Chernigovskaya’s interviews and quotes that reveal interesting facts and inspire you to make new discoveries – about yourself and about life.

About the brain

The main thing is not what we know, but how we use our knowledge.

Our brain is a computer that works according to its own rules and laws.

People should work with their heads, it saves our brain. The more it is turned on, the longer it is saved. Natalia Bekhtereva wrote a scientific paper where she proved that smart people live longer.

Some people keep repeating that nerve cells do not regenerate. But this statement is not true. It all depends on whether you put your brain to work. You should be regularly challenging and difficult. If you don’t give your muscles a workout, they will atrophy. It’s the same with the brain.

It’s important to realize that our brains are constantly changing. And we have to adapt to those changes.

The brain makes a decision 30 seconds before a person realizes it. That’s a huge amount of time for brain activity. So the question becomes, who makes the decision, the person or the brain?

The brain remembers everything: what you passed by, what you ate, what you smelled. It’s just that most of the data is in the “other” folder.

We have to take our brains seriously, because they are deceiving us. If you think of hallucinations, it’s almost impossible to convince a person who sees them that they don’t exist. They’re as real to him as objects in the vicinity are to most people. So what reason do we have to believe that what is happening to us right now is real and not a hallucination?

The brain works at maximum speed precisely because it needs to perform difficult tasks. Difficult work is medicine for the brain.

On self-development

Great literature, especially great poetry, vividly demonstrates the possibilities of language that people don’t want to use. Language is incredibly rich, but it is only a tool. Learning to play it, you can achieve a lot.

You can’t be afraid of making mistakes. The constant stress of failing at something is the worst thing you can do to yourself.

The one thing the brain can’t do is not learn. It’s learning all the time. The only question is what it’s being offered.

The brains of people who know more than one language have an advantage over the brains of those who know only one language. Learning a foreign language is useful. And it’s another way to ward off Alzheimer’s.

What you learn starts to influence your genes.

A discovery can’t be made according to a plan. But there’s an essential addendum: brilliant thoughts come only to prepared minds. Mendeleev’s table didn’t just dream it, he had been working on it for a long time before, his brain kept thinking, and it just “clicked” at some point in his dream.

If you’re bored with life – it means you’re not developing at all.

Train your brain all the time. It is important to find the right techniques for yourself and practice them regularly.

About children and upbringing

Now we know for sure: you can only be born a genius. But once you are born a genius, you may not become one.

If the neural network is trained, especially from childhood, then memory will deteriorate at a much lower rate.

The main misfortune of modern children is the ambition of their parents.

It does not matter if the child knows the exact dates of historical events. It is important that he understands what and why is happening on this planet. Search engines already know the rest. What’s valuable now are those people who will come up with brilliant, unusual ideas. And that will be a discovery.

About art

Creators have really different brains: tomography data show that some parts of their brains work more actively than in other people. Every young child should be taught music, because it is a subtle fine-tuning of the neural network. And it doesn’t matter whether he becomes a professional at it or not.

Art is a very special way of perceiving reality, no less powerful than science.

You have to listen to yourself. Sometimes it is worth dropping things and going on vacation, taking a walk, relaxing. Don’t wait for your brain to tell you I can’t remember anything. Hello, Alzheimer’s.

You have to do art to stand out from the crowd, to be yourself.