Do you remember Charles Heston's portrayal of Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel? He had to work in such an awkward position with his head tilted back as he looked up towards the ceiling. The extraordinary thing is that as Michelangelo painted over a long period of time, his brain adapted so that he saw the world in a unique, weird, upside down way all the time. Michelangelo recorded that upon completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, his vision took several months to return to normal.
Similarly, studies have shown that musicians who play stringed instruments have larger areas of their brains dedicated to hand movements than the rest of us. You may be familiar with the London Taxi Driver research which showed after completion of learning 'the knowledge' (some 25,000 roads and 20,000 places of interest and how to travel between them), drivers had developed enlarged areas of the brain areas concerned with spatial relationships.
What’s happening?
Until the last fifteen years or so it was believed in science that the brain was absolutely fixed and we were destined to live with the brain we were born with, and which slowly deteriorated from early middle-age. This idea has now been absolutely overturned as the development of complex brain imaging has let us see what happens deep within the brain. We now know with certainty the brain has the ability to change its very structure and function in response to our experiences – a process called 'neuroplasticity'.
So, there is a constant battle going on in your brain. It is a battle for your brain's real estate! Your experiences, behaviours, emotions and thoughts are constantly changing and shaping your brain. Isn't that extraordinary?
An interesting study by Alvara Pascual-Leone (1) from Harvard Medical School demonstrates this process. He blindfolded people for five days, ensuring they experienced absolute darkness, and scanning their brains at various times. The blindfolds acted as blocks in the neural pathways which process the sense of sight. After only two days the scans showed evidence of the participants' brains reorganising to rely on the alternative senses of touch and hearing. After five days it was a very noticeable change. It took about 24 hours after the blindfolds came off for the brain to revert back to using sight as the prime provider of information about the environment about them.
We really do have a 'use it or lose it' brain! If, for example, you stop using your second language or any other mental skill, it isn't just forgotten but you lose the brain space which supported it. If you brush up on that particular skill again your brain will assimilate it more quickly than it did when you first learnt it, but it will take a while to regain the brain structure allowing easy remembering of the skill.
Neuroplasticity is an amazing capacity for the brain to physiologically change and adapt as we interact with our environment, behaviours, and thoughts. Neuroplasticity begins before we were born, and continues until we die. It takes place when your brain is engaged, interested and focused, or is experiencing strong emotion. The new neural pathways formed are strengthened by continued use – there is a saying that 'neurons that fire together, wire together'. It's true!
1. Pascual-Leone, A., Amedi, A., Fregni, F. & Merabet, L. (2005) The Plastic Human Brain Cortex. Annual Review of Neuroscience (2005).
Dr. Allison Lamont is founder and clinician at the Auckland Memory Clinic and a Director of the Memory Foundation. You will find a wealth of information about your memory on the Memory Foundation website
Visit us there to try the free Brain Tune memory mini-course. Visit, too, the Auckland Memory Clinic
Have you tried our new memory games yet? You will find them on the Grownups Games Page
corgimum - 10 years ago
I have been doing Lumosity ‘training’ for a couple of years. Not sure how effective it is (what would I be like if I was not doing it?) but I do see improvement in my ability to achieve better scores for the games. Best of all it is FUN! and as you are only competing against yourself there is no real pressure. But damn, those coffee orders are a challenge….