Basic information about neuroplasticity

Posted On: 06/09/2013

Neuroplasticity is explained in simple terms by Lumosity

Neuroplasticity: the incredible, flexible brain Your brain has the innate ability to physically change itself when faced with new, challenging experiences. This ability is called neuroplasticity.

Your brain's billions of neurons —its cellular building blocks—interact with each other in complex ways. Signals travel from one neuron to another down intricate neural pathways whose structures determine your thoughts, impulses, emotions, insights, and more.

As our brains age through childhood, these neural pathways change: less-used pathways are pruned away
while pathways that you use regularly grow stronger. Each task relies on a different neural pathway.

Neuroplasticity is your brain's ability to create neural pathways and reshape existing ones—even as an adult. Your brain makes these small changes naturally throughout your lifetime. But when neuroplasticity's potential is thoughtfully and methodically explored, this physical reorganization can make your brain faster and more efficient at performing all manner of tasks—no matter how large or small they may be.

Novelty forces your brain to change Novel challenges present unexpected obstacles, forcing your brain to work in new ways. When your brain encounters these new challenges, it must remodel its existing circuitry and find new pathways for information processing.

That's because the brain assigns special neural pathways for each type of task. Just as you use different muscle
groups for running and swimming, so you use different neural circuitry for reading and watching a movie. Familiar tasks simply reactivate existing circuitry—which can keep your brain active but won't change or improve it in fundamental ways.

Adaptivity keeps your brain challenged You to have a unique set of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. A task that's easy for someone else may be a challenge to you, and vice versa.

In order to improve, you need tasks appropriate for your brain's ever-changing ability levels. As your brain becomes stronger, it's able to handle tougher challenges. This response to challenges is a key part of neural growth, and you need challenges that adapt quickly enough to push you.
That's where online cognitive training is truly breaking ground. Cutting-edge technology makes it possible for online games to adapt to your brain on a moment-by-moment basis.

Keep things new and challenging to build new pathways at any age with any history or diagnosis!