Introduction

Hello everyone, TheWorldInWords is founded by a group of guys who want to get involved and share their experiences and their thoughts writing a cool blog to read.

My name is Robert, a 20-year-old university student, recently I came across a very interesting online course on the study of human brain and how to use it to the fullest for learning.
I finished the course and I am very satisfied with what I have learned, I will try in a series of posts to share all the main ideas and develop them together with you.
So today I will speak to you about " Learning How To Learn ".

LEARNING HOW TO LEARN - PART 1: Focused and Diffuse Modes

Researchers have found that we have two fundamentally different modes of thinking: Focused and Diffuse Modes.
The focused mode is to focus intensely on something we are trying to learn or understand, instead the diffuse mode is a more relaxed and connected way to the resting state of the neurons.



Using an analogy with the pinball game.
If you remember, the pinball game works like this: you pull back a piston, you let it go and the ball that is shot out bounces all around, against the bumpers, accumulating points.  
In the following image we represent our head with eyes upwards and we take into consideration the brain like pinball game.
Here is the analogy for the two modes.

Let's have a look at focused mode for now.
As you can see the blue bumpers are very close to each other while in the diffused mode they are very spaced.

On the image we represented with the orange path a pattern of family thought; a thought maybe involving something like adding some numbers, or more advanced ideas like literary criticism or calculating electromagnetic flows.
It's about the process of thinking, while you're trying to solve, or you're trying to figure out the problem you're trying to solve, or the concept you're trying to understand that you're rather familiar with.



So look at the fuzzy underlying orange neural pathway. In some sense it's as if it's a nicely paved road.
But what if you are working on new ideas or approaches? Concepts you have not thought of before.

That's symbolized there by the neural black pattern towards the bottom of the pinball machine area.  
Having never worked that thought before, we do not know that path and do not even know where it is, so how can we develop this thought for the first time?   
Not only do we not know where it is or how it is done, but there are also all these bumpers that block access from any direction you choose to start.
To arrive at this new mental scheme, we need a different way of thinking, represented here by the diffuse mode.

The bumpers are widely spaced, the thought starts, moves freely, bounces around, and can go a long way before being interrupted by the bump against a bumper. In diffuse mode, it is possible to observe things in a more extended way, from a very different and enlarged perspective. And it is possible to create new neural connections, traveling along new paths. It is not possible to concentrate intensely on how often it is necessary to solve a problem or to understand the details of a particular concept, but it is possible to understand at least where to start from to find a solution.

Based on current knowledge of neuroscientists, we know that if you are in a focused mode, you can not be in widespread mode and vice versa: it seems that the two modes can not coexist simultaneously. It's like looking at a coin: we can see one face or the other, but never both at the same time. The fact of being in one of the two modalities, therefore, seems to limit access to the other.