Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change and create new neural pathways as a result of new experiences. In short, “That’s just the way that I am” is a choice not an absolute when it comes to our potential for change and improvement. But like everything else, practice and practice and more practice is required. So while fundamental changes can and do happen at the level of the neural pathway, they won’t happen for those who give up easily. Change and adaptability require “persistent functional changes in the brain that represent the new knowledge”.(1)
Nature and nurture
Developmental plasticity or learning begins when we are born, as soon as information enters our brain through the senses, and it continues through adulthood (plasticity of learning and memory). Environment and personal action also shape brain function. Our brain responds to sensory stimulus via our physical, and emotional or rational response to it. For example, a child who has never seen snow will learn that it is cold and white by means of his physical senses. He may look around at his parents for more information unsure of how to feel about it emotionally. If his parents just zip up his jacket and put on a hat, he will rationally learn what needs to be done next time he finds himself out and about as it starts to snow. Should his parents have an inappropriate emotional reaction for whatever reason, he may himself have the same emotional reaction causing his brain to create a path between snow and fear. Due to the brain's plasticity, this association need not remain for the rest of his life.
How change happens in the brain
Neurons like to travel on well-defined roads just like many of us do. Hence, well-traveled roads continue to become deeper and deserted roads eventually disappear. Similarly, “synaptic pruning eliminates weaker synaptic contacts while stronger connections are kept and strengthened.” (1) The more we do something, the more those connections and neurons will be strengthened. Neurons and pathways which do not get used literally die through a process called apoptosis. It is this process of strengthening some neurons while allowing others to die that creates change in the brain, and it is the hardest strength exercise to practice.
The brain never stops changing
We used to (conveniently) believe that the older we got, the more fixed our brains got. We had the perfect excuse to just allow ourselves to sink into stagnation, to stop thinking, to stop trying to learn new things. However, as it turns out, the brain never stops changing.
Durbach states in his book The Brain Explained (2000) that modifications occur in the brain as a result of learning. The neuron structure changes and the number of synapses between them increases. In other words, new “roads” are created and the travelers on these roads get stronger. Environment also alters connections between neurons in some of the deepest areas of our brains such as the hippocampus and cerebellum. (3) Thinking, learning, and acting change not only the functional organization (physiology) but also the physical structure (anatomy) of the brain. (4)
Change is possible
So while we will believe that our brains can learn and change as a result of something as "official" as reading from a book, we can’t understand that our thoughts do the same. We know that others can learn to move in the way required by a particular sport but we don’t believe we can improve our own coordination. We know that people transcend the boundaries and traumas of child and adulthoods by incredible leaps and bounds, and yet the choice to live unfulfilling lives continues to be made.
But science shows us that yes, change is possible. However, it says nothing about willingness.
Say not that you can not and say rather that it is too much work.
1. "The principal activities of brains are making changes in themselves."
--Marvin L. Minsky (from Society of the Mind, 1986)
2. Drubach, D. (2000). The Brain Explained, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
3. ^ a b Ponti, Giovanna; Peretto, Paolo; Bonfanti, Luca (2008). "Genesis of Neuronal and Glial Progenitors in the Cerebellar Cortex of Peripuberal and Adult Rabbits". PLoS ONE 3 (6). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002366.?
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity
Larisa Klein - Larisa has been a Yoga and Pilates instructor since 1999. Previous to her career as a self-employed fitness instructor, she worked as a ...
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