Living Life: June 27, 2019

NEURONS THAT FIRE
TOGETHER, WIRE TOGETHER
Aristotle was right, we are what we repeatedly do,
but modern neuroscientists would add that we
are also what we repeatedly think.
Neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to make
new neural pathways based on the information it
receives, isn’t new (our brains have always been
plastic); what is new is our understanding of this
phenomenon.
This is probably best summarised by the adage,
‘Neurons that fire together wire together’.
In other words, if you think a thought or perform
an action often enough, the neurons that are
responsible for executing those thoughts and
actions will start to join together to form new
neural pathways to accommodate them.
For example, if you constantly think about a pain
you are experiencing, the brain will create neural
pathways to make accessing that pain easier.
However, as soon as you accept you have pain,
the brain will begin to re-route away from pain
and towards acceptance. And, if you can make
acceptance your default mode, the pain usually
becomes much easier to manage (simple but not
easy).
To some degree this is what the placebo effect is
all about i.e. you take a pill that you think will
relieve your pain, the brain starts to re-route to
accommodate that thought and, hey presto, the
pain abates.
There are lots of things you can do to promote
brain plasticity, but let’s focus on three:
1. Aerobic exercise that gets a sweat up creates
a protein called Brain Derived Neurotrophic
Factor (BDNF) and BDNF is considered to be
‘fertiliser for the brain’. So, while a stroll in the
park is beneficial on a number of levels, if you
really want to energise your brain, a fast walk
that elevates your heart rate is much better.
2. If you want your brain to learn new stuff,
focused repetition (practice) is essential. Practice
makes perfect, right? Nope, perfect practice
makes perfect. Watch the average golfer spraying
balls left, right and centre on the driving range
and ask yourself what kind of plasticity is likely
to occur.
3. The celebrated neuroscientist Michael
Merzenich, says older people are good at creating
negative neuroplasticity, aka ‘you can’t teach an
old dog new tricks’ syndrome. As it turns out,
not only can Rover learn new stuff, if he makes
learning new stuff a habit there’s a good chance
his brain will remain flexible into old age, which
has significant implications for those of you who
are concerned about dementia in its many guises.
To summarise: The discovery that our brains
are plastic is a potential game-changer, but only
if you feed your brain with helpful thoughts,
exercise with the objective of getting out of puff,
practice stuff you want to learn as perfectly as
possible and stay engaged in the game of life.
Tim Webster, Exercise as Medicine NZ
7
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