The internet is turning us into cognitive couch potatoes. Instead of trying to remember information, we just Google it. Rather than craft a reply to an email, we click on a suggestion supplied by AI. At home, we dispense with books and spend hours watching mind-numbing short videos and scrolling on our phones.
“On average, everyone on this planet uses a Google search three to four times a day, [and] 70 per cent of us are already using AI every day,” says neuroscientist Dr Hannah Critchlow, a science outreach fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge.
These are new technologies, and it will take years for their long-term impacts on our brains to be understood, but you would not be alone in worrying that, by relying on these tools for help with research, writing, planning and detailed thinking, we are making ourselves more stupid.
Critchlow’s latest book, The 21st Century Brain, is about how to stay “cognitively fit” in a world threatening to crush our mental powers and automise our jobs.
“I think the important thing is to lean into what makes our species intelligent, and what has made us so successful over millions of years,” Critchlow says. “We have evolved to be a very sociable species, and also to want to explore different territories, different areas, and meet new individuals. This has allowed ideas to hop from mind to mind, and for problem-solving skills to evolve and innovation to arise.” Here is what she has learned about how we can protect ourselves and sharpen our minds.
Why emotional intelligence matters more than IQ
As Critchlow points out, concerns that our mental faculties might be outstripped by technology stretch back far further than the creation of ChatGPT. “[Pocket] calculators came into the mainstream in the 1970s, and I don’t think that that’s really eroded our mathematical skill, despite lots of fear at the time that having calculators would affect children’s intelligence,” she says. “Instead, the educational system has ramped up expectations for mathematical problem-solving using this tool.”
New technologies often help us do much more complicated things; hence homework has become more taxing on children in the last 50 years.
What is intelligence, anyway? If we expand our definition of what constitutes smarts, then we need not fear the coming technological tsunami, says Critchlow. Something not yet touched by AI is emotional intelligence – in neuroscience terms, that is our ability to “identify, understand, manage and utilise our own emotions, as well as influence the emotions of others”. Having a high “EQ” is something that “involves self-awareness and self-regulation, and it helps individuals to communicate better, reduce stress and challenges, and build stronger relationships,” she says.
An ability to tap into one’s own feelings and collaborate with others is typically not ranked as a high-value skill next to computer programming or hardball CEO leadership. Yet in scientific research, a high EQ is “the best predictor of life success and satisfaction”, says Critchlow. Someone with a high EQ will be “very good at showing curiosity [about others] without judgment, and putting people at ease,” she explains. The chaplain at her Cambridge college, she says, is someone who displays high EQ. Therapists, social workers and teachers are all likely to have high EQs, too.
The good news is that, while some of us seem to naturally have greater abilities in this realm – women are more likely to have a high EQ than men, as a number of studies have shown – emotional intelligence is something we can learn. Unlike IQ, which is believed to be largely determined by genetics, EQ “is somewhere between 10 and 45 per cent heritable at most, with the rest being down to environmental factors”.
You can increase yours by making an active effort to maintain strong eye contact when speaking to people, which boosts the synchronicity between your brains, Critchlow says. But the cornerstone of a robust ability to empathise with others is your ability to understand your own feelings. Critchlow recommends spending a few seconds each morning acknowledging different bodily sensations, such as your heartbeat or breath, and practising self-compassion by challenging negative or self-critical thoughts that arise throughout the day.
Creativity is a skill you can train
Creative thinking is another quality that we imagine some are blessed with and others are not. In truth, we all have the potential to be highly creative. Our brains produce slow alpha waves when we are relaxed, which is the sort of brain activity that prompts more creative, original thoughts. Critchlow points to one study in which a researcher stimulated participants’ brains with electric shocks to create alpha waves. While it did indeed produce more creative thoughts in the test subjects, you need not go to these lengths to think outside the box more often.
Crucial to creativity – and encouraging the alpha-wave brain state – is leaving time for your mind to wander, rather than forcing it to stay on task for hours at a time. Critchlow likes to run every day without music or podcasts to distract her, to see where her thoughts go.
Sleep, too, is key. The inventor Thomas Edison and artist Salvador Dalí “tried to go to sleep thinking of their problems because they intuitively knew that it is in that relaxed, sleepy state that you get a lot of those beautiful, creative thoughts”. It is well worth keeping a dream diary to log any interesting ideas that come to you at night and see how they can apply to your waking life.
“Creativity is associated with the lowest-frequency waves of electrical oscillation in the brain that we experience while we are awake,” Critchlow says. These alpha waves travel slowly and “they are also indicative of wellbeing”. In other words, being more creative means being healthier and happier. Those alpha waves are most present in states of relaxation, too, so it is no surprise that many a famous scientist has had their eureka moment in the bath.
You may not be looking to rewrite the laws of gravity, but you can harness creativity to improve your problem-solving skills, “which you then might use to find a lovely solution to an issue in your life, helping to make things much easier”, says Critchlow. As it becomes increasingly tempting to rely on chatbots to think, write and create on your behalf, finding new ways to understand the world will help to keep you sharp.
Why long-term thinking matters more than ever
Today’s world is full of distractions that lead us to live moment to moment, constantly looking for new things to consume and new information to absorb, even if it is of little real worth. It is thinking in the long term, however, that has allowed humans to build beautiful monuments, pass on generational wealth and even get to the moon.
“My generation grew up without being able to have a takeaway delivered to our doorstep, to get things delivered from the shop, or instantly be able to view a whole catalogue of films.
“Now we are surrounded by opportunities for instant gratification, and younger people are not as acquainted with waiting for things,” Critchlow says. The world is a very different place today compared with even a decade ago, but our ability to think ahead and plan for the future is fundamental to living a happy and successful life.
So how can you practise this skill, which Critchlow calls “cathedral thinking”? Imagination (and a little bit of that creativity you have now fostered) is key. “There was a lovely study from Japan where they got individuals to don ceremonial Time Lord robes, and then make decisions about local architecture and planning, for example. The participants made it less about themselves needing things in the here and now while they were wearing the robes. They were better able to consider others and their future self.”
The same goes for planning for a future version of yourself who needs to rely on a pension, or who is writing a will and hoping to leave something meaningful for their family after passing away.
So simply “imagining yourself 50 years down the line is a good start”, says Critchlow. But it may be more fruitful to think about your children (or other young family members) as grandparents one day, and picture how their lives might unfold if they were making the same decisions as you. “It is entirely possible for us to imagine different situations and different futures – getting the most from your brain means exercising those skills and training ourselves to think in that way.”
What you eat is shaping your brain
The relationship between our physical brains and our minds (in other words, our thoughts and feelings) is one of those elusive things that even a neuroscientist like Critchlow cannot fully explain. What is known, however, is that the way we treat our bodies impacts our brains directly, given that, ultimately, the brain is an organ like any other – and that this, in turn, affects the way we think and feel.
In fact, your brain requires far more energy to run properly than many of your other body parts. “There has been quite a lot in the press lately about the environmental cost of running AI data centres, and it is the same thing in humans,” she says. “There is an energy cost within your brain that is needed for thinking – thought is metabolically demanding.”
When it comes to brain health, your diet is an excellent place to start, and there is good evidence to suggest that careful food choices can stave off brain fog and fatigue, and keep you sharp. The advice from Critchlow’s neuroscience research is simple, and you will have heard it before: avoid processed food and sugar where you can. “When you have too much sugar or processed food, you are not properly fuelling your mitochondria, which are the power stations for all of the cells in your brain and body. They are particularly important in your hippocampus – the part of the brain that is crucial to learning, memory, navigating your environment and imagining the future,” Critchlow explains.
Eating well – by having plenty of vegetables and protein, and avoiding excessive amounts of refined carbohydrates – is the best way to make sure that your mitochondria are “happy and thriving”, Critchlow says. But to ensure your brain cells have adequate power, you must also make sure you get enough sleep, at least seven hours a night, and that you exercise regularly.
‘The 21st Century Brain: cutting-edge neuroscience to help us navigate the future’ by Dr Hannah Critchlow (Torva, £22) is out on April 30.