It's pretty obvious our brains change. For starters, an infant brain grows from a 350 gram mini-brain to a massive, 1,300 to 1,400 gram noggin. To put this in perspective, a rat brain weighs 2 grams, a cat brain weighs 30 grams, and a rhesus monkey brain weighs 95 grams. So the bigger the brain, the better, right? There's definitely a trend in this direction, but elephants have 6,000 gram brains and don't really have a shot at the Nobel prize.
So size is not the only thing that matters. Although scientists used to think the brain stopped growing new neurons after it stabilizes in size, new research has found neurogenesis, or the birth of new neurons, occurs throughout the entire lifespan. In other words, your brain is constantly changing.
Another way brains change is through changing functionally and structurally in response to environmental and internal stimuli. For example, the connections between existing neurons change (e.g. through increasing or decreasing dendritic lengths, spine densities, or synapse formations) in response to what we experience. In other words, after burning your hand on a stove, your brain learns stoves are hot by strengthening the connections between the locations of the representations for "stove", "hot" and "pain".
What's more interesting is that the brain can also change in response to internal stimuli, like thoughts. So, just by thinking about something, you biologically change your brain! Some cool studies have shown mental simulation of movements activates some of the same neural structures required for the performance of the actual movements (Roland et al., 1987; Decety & Ingvar, 1990). Therefore, mental practice alone may be able to cause changes in the brain (aka brain plasticity), thus promoting learning by allowing people to learn skills faster with minimal physical practice, perhaps by making the reinforcement of existing connections easier and speeding up memory consolidation processes.
Even cooler is how the brains of blind people function differently than those of sighted people. "Blind" brains use areas typically associated with processing visual information (the visual cortex) to read Braille (Sadato et al., 1996; 1998). But they're not just using these typically visual-sensory related areas to process different sensory information, they're using their visual cortex to process abstract, verbal/semantic information. Deprived of visual input, the visual cortex makes itself useful by doing something completely different. Put simply, it seems like the brain can be reprogrammed.
Which is awesome.
It would be really interesting to test the limits of the brain's plasticity. For instance, how much information can the brain process? How complicated can this information be? If the technology is ever invented, could our brains reprogram themselves to manage and process a direct link to the internet? Or would we become overwhelmed by this deluge of non-sensory, abstract information? After reading Feed, by M.T. Anderson, I'm a bit wary of directly hooking myself my brain up into the internet. Still, the idea of training my brain to handle having instant access to almost unlimited information is alluring. But really I just want to be on Wikipedia and Facebook ALL THE TIME.
.jpg)
I read this a loooong time ago, but it was incredible. A bit angsty at times, but MT Anderson is fantastic at coming up with consequences of linking one's brain to the internet. Some of my favorites include: downloading hallucinogenic drugs, watching movies by just closing your eyes, going online shopping by thinking about shirts.
Also, this is full of pretty brain pictures: http://fuckyeahnervoussystem.tumblr.com/
