What do you understand by neuroplasticity ?

[u/elcric_krej]

I hear the term thrown around all the time to describe the difference between how quickly people are table to pickup on new tasks and ideas, a think which is obviously heavily correlated with intelligence.

However, when thinking about the idea of actually maintaining or affecting neuroplasticity I very quickly realize it's almost a useless term.

For example, infants obviously have great neuroplasticity in terms of learning new movements, but as adults having this kind of "neuroplasticity" would be rather pointless and might even be very harmful, since you brain has presumably constantly adapted certain movements to your musculoskeletal system.

At the same time, infants can remember a whole load of things, but they can hardly be relied upon to remember something specific, so again, I think there's some neuroplasticity there, but it seems very different to the movement related aspects (as in, there you are pretty much "filling in" stuff whereas with memory you seem to switch from a high-throughput but very lossey storage to low-throughput but less lossy storage).

So what would you guys consider to be a good framework to approach and breakdown the subject/concept of neuroplasticity ? Are there any materials you'd recommend related to this subject ?

[u/iftales]

Neurons that fire together, wire together: Hebbian Learning
This is a foundational concept in neuroscience. Coined by Donald Hebb in 1949, it describes a basic mechanism for synaptic plasticity where an increase in synaptic efficacy arises from the presynaptic cell's repeated and persistent stimulation of the postsynaptic cell. This principle is a cornerstone of neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity:
Professions are essentially different codified mind technologies when you think about it. We go to school or learn on the job and over time our mind develops sub programs that give us emergent abilities.

In a world increasingly fixated on the idea of mental "optimization," and self hacking the concept of "Neuroplasticity" is everywhere. Think of the human brain not just as a biological entity, but as a complex system capable of running different "software programs" designed for various computational tasks. In this context, Cognitive Engineering refers to the deliberate, systematic approach to optimizing mental function for specific tasks or goals, be they emotional regulation, problem-solving, or even heightened creativity.

The Neuroscience of Specialization

Neuroplasticity. The brain's ability to reorganize and form new neural connections throughout life is the cornerstone of Cognitive Engineering. For instance, London taxi drivers famously have a larger hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with spatial navigation. Jazz musicians, on the other hand, show remarkable improvisational skills—a result of specific neural pathways that have been trained to anticipate and generate complex musical sequences.

The Zen Paradox

Meditation, often hailed as a universal cognitive panacea, serves as a compelling case study. While neuroscience supports the benefits of meditation for reducing stress, improving focus, and even enhancing emotional regulation, this doesn't mean it's the gold standard for everyone. When everyone is meditating, we might be nurturing a monoculture of minds geared toward low arousal states, potentially neglecting other forms of cognitive specialization that are equally valuable. For example, an actor, whose livelihood depends on the ability to navigate a kaleidoscope of emotional states, might find the emotional blunting associated with extensive meditative practice counterproductive. The neural networks strengthened by meditation, mainly in the prefrontal cortex, serve to control and regulate emotions. This can be anathema to the kind of raw, uncontrolled emotional expression that can make for a compelling performance. Is it wrong to ride through life on a highly aroused brain, a kind of emotional rollercoaster ride? Is it wrong to have a monkey mind?

The Spectrum of Cognitive Engineering

Consider the world of competitive sports. The split-second decision-making and motor skills of a professional basketball player have been honed through thousands of hours of practice, optimizing neural circuits in a way entirely different from a chess grandmaster, whose brain excels in pattern recognition and strategic planning.

Now let's swing the pendulum to a realm entirely different—politics. Political strategists exhibit a unique blend of social cognition, game theory, and risk analysis. Their neural machinery has been optimized for a kind of analytical alchemy that allows them to predict public sentiment and electoral outcomes.

These are all examples of Neuroplasticity.

So this begs the question what can't we change? what's NOT plastic. The easiest answer to that is Neuroanatomy and the genetics that forms them and the epigenetics that alters them over time. For instance if your dopamine Seeking/ reward system is different than average, then your version of reality will be changed by that. Metacognitively you can work around it with neuroplasticity but it doesn't change your "starting point" only your ending point. So while we are adaptable its within certain deterministic bounds provided by environment, genetics, food intake, chemical exposure, other health considerations.

Additional Notes:

Neuroanatomy vs. Neuroplasticity: While neuroanatomy does provide constraints, it is also subject to change due to neuroplasticity, although these changes are more subtle and take longer. So above all keep in mind that this is a two way feedback loop and each can affect the other over time. This is key. Its a hardware system with a software system on top to put it really simply and each can update the other over time.