Scientists explain: The brain divides the day into sections like a book

A new study conducted in the USA has revealed that the human brain divides 24 hours into different sections and makes sense of experiences.

A study conducted by researchers at Columbia University in the USA has revealed that the human brain divides 24 hours into different sections and makes sense of experiences. It has been shown that brain activity is divided into sections.

It confirms that new sections are marked by a visible change in brain activity as we move from one place to another or from one activity to another. Compartmentalization clearly helps the brain make sense of the ongoing flow of life.

Until now, it has been unclear how the brain decides where each section begins and ends. The new research shows a personalized process based on what is important to the person and what their priorities are.
“We wanted to challenge the theory that sudden shifts in brain activity at the beginning of a new day are due solely to sudden changes in the world,” said Christopher Baldassano, an associate professor of psychology at Columbia University. “The brain is actively sorting our life experiences into meaningful chunks.”
The research team created 16 short audio narratives covering one of four locations (a restaurant, an airport, a grocery store, and a conference room) and one of four scenarios (a breakup, a proposal, a job deal, and a meeting). A total of 415 participants were invited to listen to the narratives. In some cases, brain activity was monitored, while in others, volunteers were asked to indicate when a new part of the story had started by pressing a button.
Crucially, in some cases, the researchers primed the participants to focus on different aspects of the study. (For example, in a story about a marriage proposal at a restaurant, they were asked to focus on the proposal or the food orders.) The priming had an impact on the neurological recognition of new parts, showing that the brain adjusts its editing techniques based on what we think is most important at the moment. It was realized that past experiences, as well as current priorities and goals, can also play a role in this process.
These results identify mechanisms by which past experiences distilled into schematic event scenarios change the way we construct our current perceptions for realistic experience,” the researchers wrote in an article published about the study.
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