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Curiosity Changes Brain Functions and Enhances Learning
Have you ever wondered what happens when we get curious about something? Well, we obviously try to learn things concerning the thing that interests us, and we search for information. But have you noticed that when you find that information, absorbing and retaining it actually becomes easier than normal? One might say that it is to be expected that learning about something interesting to us would be more enjoyable. However, it is not merely psychological, and curiosity does not play the part of mere motive. Now there is strong scientific evidence that when we learn things about something that piques our curiosity, our brain process actually becomes more effective, as a result of dopamine, the chemical that helps relay messages between neurons.
To be more specific, a recent study that was published online October 2 in the Cell Press journal Neuron reveals findings that illustrate the internal brain process of learning when someone is curious. The conclusion was that curiosity affects absorption and retention of information, in regards to new information, but also unrelated information that happened to be absorbed along with the subject of interest.
For the study, participants rated their curiosity to learn the answers to a series of trivia questions. When they were later presented with a selected trivia question, there was a 14 second delay before the answer was provided, during which time the participants were shown a picture of a neutral, unrelated face. Afterwards, participants performed a surprise recognition memory test for the faces that were presented, followed by a memory test for the answers to the trivia questions. During certain parts of the study, participants had their brains scanned via functional magnetic resonance imaging.
Source: http://philosophers-stone.co.uk/wordpress/2014/10/curiosity-changes-brain-functions-and-enhances-learning/
