Today we are going to talk about how to change nervous system better and how to learn faster.
nervous system is responsible for everything we know, do, think and believe. unlike other species, human beings can change their nervous system by doing specific deliberate actions. Today we are going to talk about actions.
It turns out movement and balance provide portals into our ability to change our nervous system. we are going to talk about neuroplasticity. Let's start with a question. Does our brain control behaviour? the answer is yes. The brain and nervous system control our behaviours in a couple of different levels. if we are talking about movement ( behaviours generally mean movement ) we have two categories of neurons that we need to consider in the context of neuroplasticity:
lower motor neurons : these neurons live in our spinal cord but they extend into the body and connect to the muscles. There is no such thing as muscle memory. Muscles are dumb as door nails. all the information are stored in neurons. but these neurons are generally good at doing what they are told.
upper motor neurons: these neurons live in our top of our brain. These send signals for deliberate actions. These are the commanders that with which you can make a cup of coffee in the morning or do something by choice.
Now the question is: Can the behaviour change the brain? The answer is YES if that behaviour is different enough in specific ways from the behaviours you already know how to do well.
the goal is : recognize the behaviours that we can engage in to activate neuroplasticity so you can use that plasticity to the specific subjects or skills you want to learn. in another word, using behaviours to enter a stage of mind that allow you to access plasticity.
Create Plasticity:
I should mention this that in order to make changes to our brain, some neurochemical such as Dopamine, Acetylcholine and epinephrine, must be released followed by deep sleep so our brain neuro circuits can change.
We have a fixed system that allows us to aim and reach and do things. such as picking up a pen or glass of water. we rarely miss that pen or glass. One of the ways to create plasticity is to make errors in how we perform tasks. This sends signals to the brain that something is wrong. something is different and achievement is not here.
Most of the people, think of plasticity as a state of mind that we can enter and easily we can do and learn what we want to do or learn. they think we can enter this optimal learning-flow. but flow is an expression of something we already kow how to do. It is not where we learn. On the other hand, Errors and being out of sync of what we like to learn is how our nervous system realize something is wrong and release some neurochemicals to change some circuits in our brain. we are about to find out making errors over and over again, is the way to learn and shape your nervous system.
Experiment :
The knudsen Lab, showed if someone wear prism glasses that change the visual field. so if there was a pen on the table and someone wore the glasses, they would see the pen in a different location. they would see the pen far from where it actually is. The subjects were asked to reach the pen but they could not. In young individuals within a day or two, they started adjusting so they could reach the object. Older individuals,however, took a longer time to shift. This is incredible. This tells us the neuron will change and our brain will learn in a distorted reality too.
The question is how to privide adults, with access to this brain plasticity? first we have to ask what is the signal for plasticity? the signal that makes the plasticity is "making errors, trying and failure. "
this is fundamentally important. Because we see people trying to learn a language or coding and they can't and the get frustrated, it makes them crazy. when they don't realize that the errors themselves, are signalling to the brain and nervous system that something is not working, the brain only understand neurochemicals that are released which are acetylcholine. epinephrine and dopamine. When we are making error, our brain freaks out and release neurochemicals to change something to learn.
We humans, mostly don't like this feeling of frustration and making errors and failure. the few people who allows these feelings and errors into their work, they amazingly do well in their fields. Let's ask this question. why would you brain want to change? if everything is easy and flowing well ,there is no necessity for it to change at all. it changes when we feel awful, afraid or making errors and errors raise confusion for our brain. All these release epinephrine (alertness) Acetylcholine (Focus). When that feeling of frustration occurs, it is the worst time to leave.
When you stay in and focused, when you start getting it a little bit correct, the third molecule Which is Dopamine, allows plastic changes to happen very fast. If you are uncomfortable making errors, and you get frustrated easily, and you use that frustration to go further into your work, you set yourself up for a terrific plasticity to engage in. But if you walk away during frustration, you will learn what happens after leaving which is feeling miserable and being a quitter.
How long should we keep making that error and be in the stage of frustration?
7-30 minute
How long should be each learning session?
90 minutes!
This plasticity is slow and limited in old brains ( Usually above 25 years old) Except in two conditions :
Learning must be Incremental. It is a mistake to learn lot's of information in one setting as an adult. Adults are completely capable of plasticity but the errors should not be big.
high importance of the task at hand. How To Learn Faster? Realize the importance of what you are doing. how your life is depending on it.
Under one condition adults can have the plasticity of the young people. and it is when they have to do something out of necessity. In another word, The importance of something has an astonishing effect on learning. The knudsen Lab showed if people needed to hunt for food, they would have so much higher plasticity compared to the situation they just following the sound and wearing prism glasses. ( https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12239566/ ).
How to use Dopamine into our learning process
Dopamine is a wonderful molecule ( You can read the book called the molecule of more ) that often is associated with pleasure. that is true but mostly Dopamine is released when we know we are on the right path, or something happens to us unexpectedly. The molecule Dopamine also involved is movement. Mostly Dopamine is the molecule of motivation.
there are certain things can increase dopamine level in our body ( Drugs such as cocaine and amphetamine ) coffee, and surprisingly cold showers. cold exposure not only accelerate the process of building brown fat, but also increase our Dopamine level three times above the baseline and it last up to 3-4 hours.
How to learn faster ? To learn faster and better we should use Dopamine and connect it to the process of making errors. This combines two ways of plasticity. This is a mental method, when you associate making error with something good in your brain, it will increase Dopamine, in essence:
Making errors and keep going in the state of frustration
think and believe that this error making is good for your learning. Tell yourself the errors are good for you
keep the learning duration no more than 90 minutes in which 7-30 minutes must be frustration end error making.
You can learn after the frustration
Our brain is a wonderful tool. It is the most amazing thing that we created by the nature. The capacity for learning is wonderful. If is so amazing that if you are frustrated by tennis you can go and read a book or learn a language faster and better. Thet frustration and making errors from one activity, sets the brain into a state that heightens our ability to learn. the chemicals do not vanish quickly. it remains in your brain for a period of time. so you can leverage this. it differs from a person to another, but at least for one hour you are in the state of neuroplasticity,
Balance and Neuroplasticity
There are three planes of movement. pitch yaw roll. (nodding, looking left or right and tilting head to left or right). It turns our or relation to gravity and balance can open doors for neuroplasticity. It turns our if you engage in vestibular system ( it functions to detect the position and movement of our head in space around us) and create some errors in vestibular system, You create a state that makes you very good at learning quickly. What does it mean? the newer that behaviour is in terms of your relationship to gravity, the more it opens up the opportunity for plasticity. in simple words: if you go to an amusement park and take the roller coaster, your body is flooding with neurochemicals that we mentioned before so your state of plasticity is great. The key is, that the behaviour must be new and it disrupts our relationship to gravity.
sensation of falling and being out of balance will put us in this state. It could be through yoga or blinding yourself and stand on your only one leg.
I hope you use these information in your life. I spent 5-6 hours to gather these information on How To Learn Faster for adults. I hope it will serve you well later.
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