by Melodie de Jager
Some say the brain is a prediction making machine. It might be more accurate to say the brain is a guessing machine because, at any given moment, the brain is guessing what the next moment is going to be like. It ignores what it knows is going to be there and pays attention to what is different, and that is the nature of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity creates connections and holds those connections until something in the environment changes, then the brain uses a lot of energy to edit and upload new connections.
Think of love. You fall in love. You see every good quality of the person and continue to see it unless, suddenly, you see differently.
And then there is pain and the pain is physical – it is the feeling of love thwarted. In neuroscience the pain of love denied is a consequence of the brain’s ability to guess wrong.
How does the brain learn to guess
The human brain at birth is remarkably incomplete. It has a few hardwired circuits, circuits that enable the heart to beat, lungs to breathe, body temperature to be regulated, to suck-swallow-breathe to feed, to blink to keep the eyes moist, with an affinity for faces and base circuitry to learn language, but mostly the circuits are waiting for interaction with the environment to wire up.
Neuroplasticity is not about firing up new brain cells. It is about connecting brain cells in a way to build an internal model of the outside world. It makes the human brain flexible and adaptable, while animal brains are different.
The brains of animals develop in a predictable way so they can move and eat like their parents. Because they move and eat like their parents they stay more or less in the same environment where it is easy for them to predict with a high level of accuracy what is going to happen next.
Because their brains are wired to predict and respond to a specific environment it keeps them safe and making babies. Being safe and making babies is how a species survives, and for that to happen, they need to adapt to a specific environment.
Human beings also need to be safe and making babies to survive, but our brains are made for variety, not for sameness.
Sameness is soothing because the brain guesses what is going to happen next, and when things happen as expected, the nervous system stays calm while using existing connections which use very little energy.
Sameness is soothing but also boring. BORING
The brain wakes up, becomes alert and thrives when it makes new connections to adapt the internal model of the outside world.
It uses a lot of energy to make changes to the internal model and then the brain needs to rest and use the new connections.
It constantly scans the environment to determine which connections and circuits stays and which need to be pruned. When a circuit is used often it is kept and when it is not used, it weakens and is eliminated. Good bye, you are the weakest link.
When a circuit is used often the brain holds on to the wired pattern of thought or behaviour using a fatty sheath called myelin. This process is the basis of forming habits: SCAN – PREDICT – REWARD.
Remember, a baby has more or less the same number of brain cells as an adult. The weight of the brain, and its magic lies not in the number of brain cells, but in the number of connections between brain cells.
What is most fascinating about the adult human brain is that you become who you are by pruning connections and circuits that do not reflect where you’ve been and what you have experienced. Your brain is as unique as your finger prints, because your brain responds to what you are exposed to. Good and bad.
Being shaped by your past does not make you a victim of your past, it can, but it doesn’t have to. All you need is the courage to want to change.
But I thought this conference is about neuroplasticity and the child!
Yes, it is but we are all simultaneously children and adults. The circuits that we run in our minds, that keep us feeling small and helpless like a child, keep us chained to the past, while keeping and strengthening connections and circuits that enable us to learn and make us laugh and love brings us health and hope.
It can’t be that easy. Nobody said it was easy to change, but you can change if you want to. Science has shown us – adult brain have fewer but stronger connections, we simply need to pay attention to our emotions and the feedback from people we trust and respect, and then we choose which connections and circuits we want to strengthen, and which connections and circuits we want to prune.
Let’s learn from the brains of children.
Children are born with remarkably incomplete brains because they are born early enough to be able to pass safely through the birth canal. Because we walk upright, we need narrow hips, unlike a chimpanzee. A chimpanzee is born with a more mature brain to adapt quickly after birth.
Human babies need skin contact, touch and care for nearly 2 years before toddlers can walk, talk and ask for the care they need – attention, food, sleep, etc. From a baby’s first breath a baby is ‘a work in progress’ shaped by every touch, every sound, every thought.
This capacity for change – known as brain plasticity, or neuroplasticity – is what defines us. Due to the nature of neuroplasticity, it is important what we pay attention to, matters. We become what we pay attention to.
That is why gravity matters. Without gravity the brain lacks a point of reference to pay attention to (current location). Without a sense of current location cognition is compromised. In the wise words of Russian neurologist Doctor Oleg Efimov: “The vestibular system is the place in the body where gravity meets cognition”.
Without healthy proprioceptors in the skin, joints, muscles and tissue all over the body plus a mature vestibular system, neuroplasticity also known as the ability to adapt and learn, may be compromised.
It is easier to develop the ability to adapt and change when you are younger, but if you want to change the fingerprints that the past has left on your brain, it is never too late.
