When you are captivated by some new piece of information that you recently learned that is because, believe it or not, your brain loves to learn! When you do routine activities, it is a shortcut for your brain, and it doesn't have to work very hard to perform these tasks. When you learn something new, however, your brain fires off new signals and builds new connections within, and begin to grow a little. Learning new information increases the amount of gray matter in the brain, strengthens the synapses that transmit information through the brain at the speed of light, and actually increases the size of your brain, which is probably happening to you at this very moment! Learning things such as new sports, how to play a new instrument or a new language grow the brains cognitive capacities in a number of different ways, and promote healthy intellect and prevent failure in the brain later in life.