We have much to learn about the brain. However, this doesn’t mean we haven’t come a long way in understanding the brain. In fact, what we currently know collectively as the human race about the brain calls for immediate attention and action on this knowledge.
Regardless of your background, it is important to consider the human brain and its functions as we move forward in our lives, particularly the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and I’ll explain why.
Out of all the parts of the brain, the prefrontal cortex is what makes us distinctly human. It is responsible for everything you heavily associate with humans. If giraffes are long-neck beings and birds are flying beings, then humans could be classified as “PFC beings”.
“But some people are better than others, if we all have the PFC, then why aren’t we all roughly the same in terms of capability?”.
Although variety is common within the same species, humans tend to have the most variety. But have you ever asked why? I believe the reason there is so much variety in humans is not an easy question to answer but there are a few things that can explain it.
First, we all have some control over our behaviors. This is due to the PFC, the brain region we’re interested in. This voluntary control over our behaviors means there is a wider range of options in responding than the average animal. Inherently when there are more options there will be more variety.
Second, not everyone’s PFC is fully operational. Some people walk around with dormant PFCs or at least compromised PFCs. People with ADHD are a good example of compromised PFCs. You can manually manipulate the PFC by doing PFC-related activities, naturally increasing the baseline activity.
Now, why mention the differing PFC activity levels? Well, if the PFC is the “voluntary action organ” and it is not working at its best, then the number of voluntary actions a person will produce and take action on will be less. So, the variety in behaviors will be less, thus creating a disparity in behavior and success between full PFC individuals and nonPFC individuals.
However, if this is all true, then the dormant PFC individuals WOULD have more behavior variety (and more self-control) if they were to gain more PFC activity, decreasing the difference in ability and self-control among individuals, without necessarily changing the variety in behavior output from individuals.
So, no, the difference between most individuals is not large, they all have sufficient PFCs if they were active, making people roughly as competent as others just with different expressions of competence. It is easier to imagine when you think of the sense of smell in a dog breed, such as German shepherds or Blood hounds. All German shepherds roughly have the same sense of smell, the species itself is gifted, not exclusive members only. In the same way, humans are gifted with a large PFC and the difference in capability is probably minimal like with dogs and their senses of smell.
This all being said, every human benefits from (and maybe requires) full PFC activation, and individuals can activate their PFC by targeting specific actions and activities.
3 ways to activate your PFC:
1. Do fine motor activities.
Things such as writing, drawing, typing, playing guitar, using your fingers. Do yoga or anything with your hands that requires coordination or precision.
2. Learn a second language.
If you learn a second language, you multiply your intelligence. The more languages the better, but 2 would be a great place to start and even a good place to stay and maintain. Apps like Duolingo work incredibly well, they’re fun and won’t require more than 5 minutes per day.
3. Organize and/or make a long-term schedule.
The PFC helps us stay future-oriented. Calendars and schedules allow us to manipulate the future. We don’t always get what we want but generally with an organized life, home and schedule you are increasing your chances of success and repeated success.
Make sure your home is clean, you are clean, your room is clean, and most importantly organized. You don’t have to be obsessive about it. You can start by shaping, or behaving your way into, an organized life. Behaving your way into it means inching towards organization and planning little by little, focusing on increasing the instances of “organization and planning”. The more instances per week, the more you can confirm that you’re making progress. Planning and organizing are well-known functions of the prefrontal cortex and are a great place to start.
There are many other ways to activate the prefrontal cortex, the book Brain Hacks by Dr. Lara Honos-Webb, PhD is a great place to start.