How to correctly use human brain plasticity

The human brain has amazing plasticity. For a long time, neuroscientists believed that after a certain age (maybe only 7 years old), our brain would be shaped and could not be changed. However, this concept was subsequently overturned. What subverts it is a thriving new field-neuroplasticity. This new field shows us that the plasticity of even the old brain is far more than we once imagined. This is not a brief and superficial change in the level of thinking,Sustained and tangible changes in physiological structure levels. The connection between neurons and neurons to respond to behavior and even thoughts will lead to a real change in the way the brain works. The circuit of the fear brain and happy brain (or Yin Yu brain and yanyang brain) is particularly plasticity. This means that our experience in fear and happiness gives us a unique brain with a set of distinctive loops and connections. Each of us responds to fear and happiness in our unique way. This fundamental difference in emotional brain response forms our interpretation of the world around us. We now know that if we change our cognition, We can reshape our brain.

 

After years of development, London now has more than dense and intricate streets. However, the streets in London are arranged irregularly, and they are not as straight and upright as the streets in New York. However, if you jump into a black taxi (London's iconic taxi) anywhere in London, the driver will try to take you to the destination through the shortest path. This spatial navigation capability is not easy. Only the knowledge examination can be used to get a license to drive a black taxi. This test is to check whether the tested users can remember and navigate more than 50% streets. It is very difficult, with only passing rate.

 

In 2000, Professor Eleanor Maguire, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of London, tested 16 black taxi drivers with an FMRI brain scanner, they found that the back of the hippocampus was much larger than that of other people. For birds, animals, and humans, the back of the hippocampus is a brain area related to spatial navigation. What's more noticeable is that the longer the driving age, the larger the hippocampus return.

 

After this study, Maguire and his team continued to examine the progress of taxi drivers in learning "knowledge. They used the MRI again and scanned the brain of the prospective drivers at the beginning of the course. At the end of the course, they scanned the brain again. The result shows that the driver with the largest change in hippocampus is most likely to pass the test.This strongly proves that a unique experience can indeed make tangible and profound changes to the physiological structure of the brain..

 

More powerful evidence comes from the study of musicians. Playing music is a complex task. Hundreds of notes can be generated every minute. It is a great part of human civilization. A high-resolution MRI brain scanner showed that the brain of a musician is significantly different from that of a Non-musician.Musicians are much larger than non-musicians in brain areas related to listening to complex sounds and brain areas related to producing precise movements.. You may think that this may be a prerequisite for becoming a musician. The reason why a musician becomes a musician is that it is born with a brain with a musical talent. However, this is not the case. Research shows that the size of these brain areas is related to the amount of exercises-the more exercises you have, the larger the brain area.

 

There is also a poor picture of the plasticity of the musician's brain, that is, focal dystonia ). The fingers of the stringinstruments with such symptoms can only be linked and cannot be moved independently. This problem occurs because the brain area that controls different parts of the body is distributed along a narrow area called somatosensory cortex ). Each part of the body has a projection in the somatosensory cortex. We can draw a distribution chart based on these projections to show where the lips are, where the arm is, where the hand is, and where the fingers are. Under normal circumstances, each finger has a small projection in the somatosensory cortex, and each projection is independent of each other. However, if the two fingers are always used together (for example, in a guitar playing), the skin projection of the two fingers will gradually become larger and eventually converge together. The somatosensory cortex begins to regard the two fingers as one, represented by a projection, and the result is that the guitar can no longer manipulate either of the two fingers independently.

 

After neural plasticity is discovered,We understand that the flexibility of the human brain is far greater than we previously thought. Our brain never stops responding to new things. From the moment we were born to the day when we died, our brain was constantly learning and changing.The complex neural networks and neural fiber pathways inside the brain constantly respond, adapt, and rearrange. This flexibility gives us an excellent opportunity to change our mindset.

 

HoweverNeural plasticity is a double-edged sword, because if we don't need new things to challenge our brains, our beliefs and ways of doing things will solidify and become hard to change. If we no longer use certain brain areas, these brain areas will gradually be taken over by other functions. On the contrary, as long as we work hard, even deep-rooted loops can be changed.

 

Have you heard of the story about the outstanding hearing ability of blind people? Several studies show that,The outstanding hearing of blind people is not a matter of fact.. Scan the blind brain to find that the cortex area on the front and back of the brain, which normally only responds to the visual information, also responds to the auditory information. Normal people in that group of neurons will activate what they see, while blind people will activate what they hear. The cortex is like the ground skin (often used as a metaphor). The cortex responsible for a certain kind of feeling is not subject to such sensory stimulation for a long time and will not remain idle, but be used by other feelings and activities. If the eyes can no longer be seen, the cortex used specifically for vision will be used for hearing.

 

Alexander Stevens and his colleagues at Oregon Health and Science University in Oregon let blind people listen in a brain scanner. They found that when the alarm sounded, the back of the Blind brain would immediately be congested, and the back of the brain would be visual in the normal brain. Listening to music and voice not only stimulate the auditory cortex, but also activate brain cells that previously only discharge visual signals. Therefore, the voice struck two areas of the Blind brain.

 

And vice versa. Another neuroscientist at the University of Oregon Health and science, Helen Neville, wants to know if people with hearing impairment (deaf) will develop better eyesight, so I selected some very small deaf people and some normal people to study. She showed flashes in their peripheral horizons to measure how different areas of their cortex reacted to these flashes. The results showed that some of their auditory cortex, which is normally used to process sound, also reacted to visual stimulation. The peripheral visual acuity of these persons with hearing impairment has indeed become stronger.

 

Conclusion:A person who loses his or her sensory abilities will be used to execute other tasks in his or her brain zone.. This sounds quite attractive!

This article is excerpted from "Why are lucky people lucky and unfortunate people continue to be unlucky?" (Oriental Publishing House)

About this book:

 

Are you optimistic or pessimistic? Do you think the cup is half full or half empty? Are you looking at the bright side or the dark side? These problems are simple for most of us, because our brain seems to have preset our personality type. As found by cutting-edge psychologist and neuroscientist Ian Fox, our outlook on life reflects our preference for happiness or avoidance of danger-the two primitive tendencies are in a healthy balance for many people. However, when either side of the "Fear brain" or "Happy brain" is too powerful, the results may be terrible. This is a deep understanding of those of us suffering from shyness, addiction, depression, or anxiety.

Fortunately, anyone suffering from these pains has reason to be hopeful. Breakthroughs in neuroscience show that the plasticity of the brain far exceeds our imagination. We can train a nervous system that controls a mental process to enhance this mental process and make the brain loop change. Why are lucky people lucky and unfortunate people continue to be unlucky? This article introduces a series of such techniques, from traditional cognitive behavior therapy to emerging cognitive remodeling exercises. It has a great significance: a person with a lifetime of grief can train himself to think positively and find happiness, and those who pursue happiness without danger can control his life.

Using his own cutting-edge research, Fox demonstrated how to reshape the brain to shine on life and learn to flourish. Why are lucky people lucky again and again? With a keen insight into how the genetic structure, life experiences, and cognitive processes interact and shape us, our personal development concept is likely to undergo fundamental changes. We will understand that we can influence our own personality. We will also know that we can decide whether we are "pessimistic" or "optimistic.

How to correctly use human brain plasticity