Why is it that after age...9 or 10, the brain stops functioning as well? I feel like I can't remember things as well as I used to be able to, and I'm just not interested in learning anymore. I mean have you ever seen how eager little kids are to learn and to play. They're just little balls of energy. Where did that feeling go?
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my brain stop functioning at optimum at around 16 or 17. i blamed it on drugs. sigh.... i cant memorize exams minutes prior to test anymore and catch up in one night a semester of study.
Your brain physically changes around that time (along with the rest of your physiology).
The childhood desire to learn probably exists because you need to quickly discover the rule of the world around you, everything from "things move when I hit them" to "the bright thing in the sky is called the sun". Once you leave childhood the energy resources that went to running the brain non-stop like that switch to building up the body physically so that you can survive and contribute to the mastodon hunts. Evolution has yet to catch up with the lack of mastodons.
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It doesn't "stop functioning as well": it functions differently. At first it's focused on getting the basics down (see S Chaos' post). But then more abstract and comprehensive thinking kicks in, and if anything, the brain functions better because it can now comprehend stuff it couldn't before.
But other things can interfer with learning. Adolescence is nearly akin to age-specific psychosis, with its narcissistic rationalizing, cut-off-nose-to-spite-face oppositionalism, 15-second attention spans and 25/8 head pollution from ipods.
Don't go by how the brain functions during this time.
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methinks your perceptions have much less to do with real physiological changes in your brain and more to do with social and personal factors.
Memory isn't better for childhood, in fact, unless you are 12-13, you are describing a very abnormal pattern of memory. I think you might want to think and see if you really do have better memory for mundane things one year ago versus when you were 9-10. It may just be that cooler and more memorable things were happening to you at that point in time.
I think drugs or some kind of medical reason the brain can slow down.Also as you get older your brain should be working faster because it is learning alot more stuff then it did when you were a kid.