This Is What Your Brain Looks Like When You Solve a Problem

We’ve all had the aha moment, when the solution to a problem is suddenly obvious. In cartoons, that eureka feeling is usually depicted as a lightbulb floating above a character’s head—which is not that far off from what actually takes place in the brain during these moments. Researchers have revealed that epiphanies physically reshape brain activity. What’s more, they discovered that people remember epiphanies better than solutions reached through a more methodical approach. These results could have important implications for how instructors approach teaching in classrooms. “If you have an ‘aha! moment’ while learning something, it almost doubles your memory,” Roberto Cabeza, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke, said in a university statement. “There are few memory effects that are as powerful as this.” Cabeza is senior author of a study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Communications. As study participants solved brain teasers, he and his colleagues ... Read full article.