However, those changes actually reflect what’s happening at the level of individual cells. Spreng’s findings involve the whole brain. Courtesy of Hadley Bergstrom/NIAAA Cells that fire together, wire together The mouse was genetically modified to make a fluorescent protein that glows green. As the brain learns, neurons relay information faster and more efficiently. This is what musicians, athletes and others often refer to as being “in the zone.” This neuron from a mouse brain shows the bulbous cell body with a single axon projecting from it. In fact, stopping to think about the task can actually interfere with a flawless performance. A professional pianist, for example, can play a complex piece of music without thinking about which notes to play next. But the more you practice, Spreng says, the less you have to think about what you’re doing.Įxtensive practice can even allow a person to perform a task while thinking about other things - or about nothing at all. Learning to swing a bat requires a great deal of focus when you first try to hit a ball. “At the beginning, you require a lot of focused attention,” Spreng says. Meanwhile, areas of the brain linked with daydreaming and mind-wandering became more active as people became more familiar with a task. But those attention areas became less active over time. Each study had used an fMRI or PET scan to probe which regions of the brain turn on when people learn new tasks.Īreas that allow people to pay attention became most active as someone began a new task. Together, they analyzed 38 of those earlier studies. Spreng wanted to know how the brain changes - how it morphs a little bit - as we learn. A neuroscientist studies the brain and nervous system. Spreng is a neuroscientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Nathan Spreng did something a little different: He decided to study the studies. Each looked at how specific areas of the brain responded to specific tasks. Experts have performed dozens of such studies. Others use another type of brain scan, known as positron emission tomography, or PET. Many brain scientists use fMRI to map brain activity. Chemical messengers - called neurotransmitters - leave the end of one nerve cell and jump across a gap to stimulate the next nerve cell. That boost in blood flow highlights which cells are busy working. Now, when a scientist asks a volunteer to perform a particular task - such as playing a game or learning something new - the machine reveals where blood flow within the brain is highest. It allows the device to detect changes in blood flow. At the heart of every fMRI device is a strong magnet. Scientists can see what part of the brain is active by using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI. It also helps you figure out where things are located around you. Deep in the brain, the hippocampus helps store memories. Other parts of the cortex (the outer layer of the brain) help process sights and sounds. It’s the region right behind your forehead. Later, these areas will each take on different roles. Just six to seven weeks into the development of a human embryo, the brain starts to form into different parts. Scientists have begun unlocking these secrets of how we learn, not only in huge blocks of tissue, but even within individual cells. And it’s not just nerve cells that shift and change as we learn. Recent data have been showing that the brain continues to change over the course of our lives. But these experts used to think that those changes stopped once the brain matured. Scientists have known that the brain continues to develop through our teenage years. But exactly how that process happens has long been a mystery. Courtesy of Nathan Spreng/Cornell Universityĭoing something over and over again doesn’t just make it easier. Red shows mind-wandering areas that became more active as the task was mastered. Blood flow decreased in those areas as they became more familiar with the task. Here, blue highlights attention-related areas that had greater blood flow when people first learned a task. Blood flow reveals activity in the brain. The same is true when it comes to learning information - preparing for that quiz bowl, say, or studying for a big test.Īs teachers, coaches and parents everywhere like to say: Practice makes perfect. It is all about steadily mastering new skills. Learning to play an instrument or a sport requires time and patience. Musicians, athletes and quiz bowl champions all have one thing in common: training.
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