Neurons that fire together, wire together
The more I work with memory, the more I am coming to understand how important strengthening your ability to remember multiple events of a similar type is a key to creating permanent neuroplastic change on an everyday level.
In some earlier posts, I talked about how I've been investigating the nature of memory, and using memory as a way to get into a creative state. In the last weeks I've been doing a lot of thought experiments around memory, in order to try and see why certain memories are recalled and others not. I was also testing out the description below that explains how long term memory is created.
The information follows a path (called the Papez circuit), starting at the hippocampus, circulating through more of the limbic system (to pick up any emotional associations like "happy fall day," and spatial associations like "apple orchard"), then on to various parts of the cortex, and back to the hippocampus. Making the information flow around the circuit many times strengthens the links enough that they "stabilize," and no longer need the hippocampus to bring the data together, says neuroscientist Bruno Dubuc of the Canadian Institutes of Neuroscience, Mental Health, and Addiction. The strengthened memory paths, enhanced with environment connections, become a part of long-term memory.
From the neuroplastisicty perspective, this repetitive approach to reinforcing memory can be summarized as 'Neurons that fire together, wire together'. Studies with brain-injured patients show that the brain is able to reprogram itself when parts of the brain associated with the injured body part are damaged. The important part of the therapies used to train new parts of the brain is very intense repetition of carefully designed movements or exercises, in order to fire the neurons involved in the new skill enough times that the brain makes the new connection permanent.
Neurons that fire together, wire together
The important part of this is understanding the importance of repetition for brain development. If we want to remember something important, we must repeat it a lot. I only have to look at my four and six year old children to realize how true this is. I'm endlessly repeating the same basic instructions for behaviors I want my kids to take on, and am amazed at how much repetition it takes to create a new habit.
But kids a easy to program new behaviors compared with adults. Adults have a lifetime of well trodden neuronal pathways. Creating a new thought pattern thus requires a whole bunch of 'deprogramming' before the intentional 'new-programming' can most effectively take hold. Repetitive rote learning for most people often carries a negative association, most likely picked up in early school years as a result of boredom or frustration in the classroom. In order as adults to keep our passion for learning high, most of us probably need to address these negative judgement about repetitive learning.
Because most people actually do enjoy exploring past memories, time spending exploring pleasant memories both reinforces those memories (a good thing - everyone wants to have a rich memory life), and more importantly, strengthens our inclination to enjoy the repetitive mental effort required to reprogram negative beliefs and visualize the new activities that bring us closer to our goals in life.
In some earlier posts, I talked about how I've been investigating the nature of memory, and using memory as a way to get into a creative state. In the last weeks I've been doing a lot of thought experiments around memory, in order to try and see why certain memories are recalled and others not. I was also testing out the description below that explains how long term memory is created.
The information follows a path (called the Papez circuit), starting at the hippocampus, circulating through more of the limbic system (to pick up any emotional associations like "happy fall day," and spatial associations like "apple orchard"), then on to various parts of the cortex, and back to the hippocampus. Making the information flow around the circuit many times strengthens the links enough that they "stabilize," and no longer need the hippocampus to bring the data together, says neuroscientist Bruno Dubuc of the Canadian Institutes of Neuroscience, Mental Health, and Addiction. The strengthened memory paths, enhanced with environment connections, become a part of long-term memory.
From the neuroplastisicty perspective, this repetitive approach to reinforcing memory can be summarized as 'Neurons that fire together, wire together'. Studies with brain-injured patients show that the brain is able to reprogram itself when parts of the brain associated with the injured body part are damaged. The important part of the therapies used to train new parts of the brain is very intense repetition of carefully designed movements or exercises, in order to fire the neurons involved in the new skill enough times that the brain makes the new connection permanent.
Neurons that fire together, wire together
The important part of this is understanding the importance of repetition for brain development. If we want to remember something important, we must repeat it a lot. I only have to look at my four and six year old children to realize how true this is. I'm endlessly repeating the same basic instructions for behaviors I want my kids to take on, and am amazed at how much repetition it takes to create a new habit.
But kids a easy to program new behaviors compared with adults. Adults have a lifetime of well trodden neuronal pathways. Creating a new thought pattern thus requires a whole bunch of 'deprogramming' before the intentional 'new-programming' can most effectively take hold. Repetitive rote learning for most people often carries a negative association, most likely picked up in early school years as a result of boredom or frustration in the classroom. In order as adults to keep our passion for learning high, most of us probably need to address these negative judgement about repetitive learning.
Because most people actually do enjoy exploring past memories, time spending exploring pleasant memories both reinforces those memories (a good thing - everyone wants to have a rich memory life), and more importantly, strengthens our inclination to enjoy the repetitive mental effort required to reprogram negative beliefs and visualize the new activities that bring us closer to our goals in life.
