It gives a whole new meaning to my response “I’m thinking of working out,” when my wife asks when I’m going to get off the recliner and put down the book!
]]>I’ve enjoyed these blogs. Very interesting.
I know it’s a completely different area of brain science, but I read an article in a science journal about how they recently discovered that the brain “rewires” itself in response to how we use it most often. Neurologists originally thought that the functional map of the brain remained static. And this has been seen in both areas of psychology and physiology in terms of the brain map. For example (and I won’t explain this well), if a person consistently does more study, reading, writing, etc. than they do physical activity, some of the parts of the brain that control physical activity are rewired for cognitive pursuits (thus explaining why intellectuals tend to be non-athletic and vice versa). It’s also provided some fascinating breakthroughs in things like the “phantom limb” phenomenon in amputees. They’ve found brain remapping where the area known in most people to control the arm now controls other muscles after an amputation. So, the saying really is true: “Use it, or lose it.”
Anyway, I was just wondering if you had heard that research. It’s fascinating, and might even have a bearing on the learning stuff that you talk about here.
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