Brain Structure and Mind Maps

To help you understand why concept maps can do all of this, it will help you to know a little more about the structure of the brain and how it works.

The brain is made up of approximately 200 billion cells called neurons. Whenever it does any work, electrical signals pass from one neuron to another across connections between the cells at points called synapses. Your intelligence and creativity are linked to the number of these interconnections. As the brain does more work, as it learns and grows, the number of these interconnections increases. So the more you use your brain, the more effective it becomes. It has been estimated that the number of potential connections between cells is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 with 28 noughts after it!). Your brain’s potential, then, is truly vast. The lesson to take from this is the following: if you want to boost your intelligence and creativity, use your brain as much as you can.

Furthermore, by stimulating as many different parts of the brain as possible when doing mental tasks you encourage yet more connections to be made between the different cells thus increasing the power of your mental functioning still further. How do you stimulate as much of the brain as possible? By utilising all of its functions. The brain is divided into a number of different regions. If we draw a line running down the middle of the brain from the front to the back, we find that there are two similar areas, called hemispheres, one on the left, one on the right. The right hemisphere is wired so that it generally controls the left hand side of the body, and the left wired so that it controls the right. Communication between the two hemispheres is via a network of neurons known as the corpus callosum.

For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one, and since it controls the right hand side of the body, may explain why most people are right handed. It deals with the more traditionally academic skills such as words, logic, numbers, sequence, linearity, analytic ability and lists.

The right hemisphere deals with more abstract and less academic, more creative, functions such as rhythm and movement, spatial awareness, dimension, colour, and gestalt (gestalt is the ability to perceive a picture or concept as a whole).

The roles that the different hemispheres take are not set in stone: in some people, the functions are reversed, so that the left side controls the more creative functions while the right side controls the more academic functions. Furthermore, either hemisphere can perform the functions of the other in certain circumstances, and this often happens in cases of brain damage.

Another section of the brain, older in evolutionary terms, known as the mid-brain, hind-brain or limbic system, deals with input from the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; additionally, it controls our emotional responses to the situations in which we find ourselves.

The idea behind concept maps is make use of all of these different cortical skills. Like traditional forms of noting, a concept map will use words, numbers, logic, order and sequence, all left hemisphere skills. However, unlike traditional notes, it will also use right-hemisphere skills such as colour, movement, dimension, rhythm, as well as appealing to our mid-brain by drawing in the emotions.

By incorporating all of the different strengths of the brain into the concept map itself, the concept map involves the whole brain. Thus, it increases the associations that the brain can make, enhancing mental creativity. Also, because its structure links different ideas to one another, it utilises the same skills that are used for developing memory, and so is a good memory tool.

Compare this approach with the traditional style of note taking. Such notes usually present information in a linear order, dictated not necessarily by the logic of association, but merely by the time-order in which information is presented. They do not utilise all of your brain’s different cortical skills. They make no use of colour, movement, shape or rhythm. Ideas are not logically connected to each other, and so new ideas are not easily generated. The upshot is that normal notes fail to involve the brain as they might. This results in lack of interest and boredom ensuring that they are easily forgotten.

So, to summarise, the reason for using concept maps, and the advantage that they have over traditional forms of note taking, is that they bring into play all of the brain’s different skills by utilising these skills when constructing the concept map, increasing the number and quality of ideas that are generated, and strengthening the brain into the bargain.

Course structure

In the upcoming sections we will show you how exactly what concept maps are and what they look like, how to draw and construct concept maps in accordance with certain rules of good practice. We will give you advice on how to use concept maps in a wide variety of situations. We will give you a number of exercises for you to practise constructing your own concept maps and a practice regime to help you ensure that you use concept maps regularly.

Before you start we recommend you have a browse through some of the mind maps on this site. Click through each thumbnail to explore each image in more detail.