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I see this as a positive. I always lamented the idea that as we grew older we generated less and less neurons, and thus our learning capacity decreased (I thoug
by ramblerman 9y ago
I see this as a positive. I always lamented the idea that as we grew older we generated less and less neurons, and thus our learning capacity decreased (I thought).
But it seems even young university students are no longer generating neurons. Nor are the 30 year olds learning new languages or switching careers.
It seems neuron growth thus has nothing to do with 'plasticity' or our capability to learn.
* disclaimer: I know very little of neurology so please correct any false assumptions.
- sevenfive 9y agoI mean, we already know the differences between 20- and 30- year olds from simple observation. So it's not really positive or negative.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- jmkni 9y agoWhat would you say the differences are, based on your observations?
- sevenfive 9y agoNot my observations, observational studies. Regardless of the exact reasons why plasticity declines with age, it's obvious that any fix is a long way off. I wouldn't take this news as positive, rather negative, actually, since it just means we have yet more work to do Like, instead of saying "I always lamented the idea that as we grew older we generated less and less neurons" the GP can now say "I always lamented the idea that [other unknown mechanism behind declining plasticity]". Hardly good news.
- shaki-dora 9y agoThe neurogenesis hypothesis was always more about mood/mental health rather than learning, I believe.
- heldrida 9y agoTrue! But someone who learns to play the guitar, or a language at 8 ~ 15 years old shows skills that are very difficult to master (if not impossible) when you are older. There's a lot of evidence of this if you talk with guitar teachers, someone who moved and start speaking a different language when adult, etc...
- StavrosK 9y agoCan you point to any studies? I don't know if this is because our brains get less plastic, or because we just stop bothering when we get older. I have personally noticed some drop in language acquisition skills, but I'm learning Spanish at 35 and I wouldn't say it's significantly harder than learning English at 12 (apart from the fact that English is everywhere around me all the time, but Spanish is very hard to come by).
- heldrida 9y agoI've got Japanese friends who live in the UK for more than 10 years now, and it's more Engrish then English, than anything else. My english sucks by the way. Maybe this will help you? http://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/3/755 http://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/3/755 http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/secondlangacquisition.htm http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ling201/test4materials/seco... https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120328172212.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120328172212.h... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X03000671 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X0... https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5vvY2BDWZjEC&pg=PA251&dq=Musical+Performance:+Expression+and+the+Development+of+Excellence&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjqo4m2jN3ZAhVhLMAKHQ-eBhEQ6AEILjAB#v=onepage&q=Musical%20Performance%3A%20Expression%20and%20the%20Development%20of%20Excellence&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5vvY2BDWZjEC&pg=PA251&dq... https://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-101-CommonQuestions.php https://www.justinguitar.com/en/BC-101-CommonQuestions.php
- StavrosK 9y agoHmm, I don't see anything in there related to skill acquisition in younger vs older people, I'm afraid. Most of the links are about skill acquisition in general, and how the brain changes. One is to a Google book that won't show the page (I don't know why, it says the page is unavailable), and the last link is a teacher saying he guesses children learn more quickly because they're more plastic (but I guess they learn faster because they have more free time/willingness to practice)...
- redka 9y agoConsidering that as we age we lose some of our neurons - even if not _because_ of aging itself but for other reasons such as drugs or disease - there still could be an observable difference in both 'plasticity' of our brain and our capability to learn.
- NutriSugar 9y agoI think learning is more about losing neurons, not creating it. Or meatspace neural netowrks are less about changing weights and more about pruning connections.
- Tharkun 9y agoI can't find the link, but I recently read an article that sugggested people with autism did less connection pruning during puberty than people without autism.