Margriet Sitskoorn is professor of neuropsychology at Tilburg University. Her main topic is neuroplasticity: the fact that our brains can highly adapt to their environment. “It’s a hopeful science,” she says. “For example, if you have a short fuse, you can change that, that is not the end point. But it can also be negative, if you whine a lot you get ‘whining neurons’ and it becomes easier to whine.” She said this on Wednesday in the television program ‘KRAAK. asks further’ from Omroep Brabant.
Margriet is convinced that society could benefit greatly from the insights of her science. Sometimes she finds it frustrating that these psychological insights are so rarely accepted in society. “But I am doing my best to change that.”
That is why she writes books, such as her bestseller ‘The Makeable Brain’ and she now contributes to the television program Brain hack from KRO-NCRV that can be seen from this week. This is about influence through advertising, for example, and how to avoid it.
“It concerns, for example, group formation. Deep in our brain there are old structures that experience pain when we do not belong or when we lose status. Advertising makers respond to this. It helps if you understand that mechanism.”
Survival mechanism
But it is the same old ‘pain structures’ that cause division in society, she says. “If your people feel that their status or group is threatened, they get angry and dig in their heels. That is an old survival mechanism. If you understand how that works, you can have more understanding for that. But to To bridge the gap, you may have to step out of your own group a bit and we find that very difficult.”
Her next book will be about the interaction between our brain and our environment. Because we create that environment, but our brain also changes as a result. An exciting question now is, for example: what does constantly being online do to our brains?
Margriet: “I have the feeling that because of this we are drifting further and further away from what really matters. And that is, for example, human contact. You can send someone in mourning an app, that also does something, but a personal conversation is much better .”
It is a reason for her to avoid social media: “I prefer to decide for myself where my attention goes,” she says.
‘CREAK. asks through’ is broadcast every Wednesday at 5.15 pm and then repeated. The program can also be seen in longer versions on Brabant+ and there is a podcast.