The brain's power of logic and reasoning are dependent on receiving correct information.

Thanks to the technology of the Internet and AI, misinformation is vastly increasing.

Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Michael Ramirez recently depicted three scientists huddled together in a medical lab for The Washington Post. The first looks up from a microscope and ominously states, “It’s the most dangerous pathogen we have come across.” The second scientist, bug-eyed, inquires, “Bubonic plague? Smallpox?” The third provides the answer, “Misinformation and conspiracy theories.”

Information can be thought of as a basic brain nutrient, much like the lungs needing oxygen. Misinformation works to undo the brain’s operation at all levels of functioning, from the molecular to the microscopic to the behavioral.

A millisecond delay in the speed of nerve impulses from the legs of a jogger can lead to a loss of balance with the potential for a severe or even fatal fall; a disturbance in the smooth interplay of neurotransmitters secondary to the introduction of a chemical, such as a psychedelic, may result in psychosis.

Cognitively and behaviorally, exposure to misinformation can convince a voter to believe something about a candidate that isn’t true, and subsequently cast a vote based on that misinformation. What’s most disturbing is the use of misinformation to invalidate our most basic perceptions.

Over evolutionary eons, the brain has learned to........

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