Information Overload: A System for Better Managing Everyday Data

Chapter 6. MIND YOUR BRAIN

Our senses are continuously bombarded with all sorts of information-rich bites: billboards, music, other people, and many more information stimuli. We expect our brain to select, remember, and use the right signs from these large amounts of information. In addition, we expect it to properly process all emotional signs.

A computer is powered by electricity, but what food does our brain need in order to perform well? And why do we need to exercise and play games? This chapter shows you why.

SENSITIVE INFORMATION

Our senses collect and our brains filter and organize information every minute of the day. These are definitely information: a drop of water on your elbow, a child's cry far away, the material from which your new dress is made, that smell from your youth that you had forgotten, or that familiar-looking face that you cannot connect to a name.

Olfactory

When we say that we find something delicious, we often mean to say that it smells nice; an important part of taste is determined by smell. Smells are an important source of information. Our nose immediately passes on smell signals to the limbic system, which is part of the mammalian brain. Smells are closely connected to memories. After the 20th year of our life, our sense of smell deteriorates drastically, at a rate of about 50 percent per decade. This probably explains why older people often associate smells with "old" memories. Each time we remember a certain fact, we record this memory in a new interpretation. ...