The Neuroscience of Learning

what's going on in the brain when you learn in order to learn anything whether it's math a foreign language guitar or how to dribble a basketball you need to create and strengthen pathways in your brain think about shooting a free throw know that feeling when you've got it down and don't even have to think about it that's muscle memory here's the thing muscle memory lives in the brain not the muscles your brain controls everything your muscles do and it does this by activating specific neural pathways for each and every movement these are functional pathways neurons working together to achieve a goal say you're learning how to shoot a free-throw if it's your first time doing it you don't yet have a pathway for that movement in your brain you need to create it let's use an analogy but look at what's happening in the brain during this time when you're first learning your brain is like a forest full of trees and dense foliage with no clear pathway between point a and point B as you learn the mechanics of shooting a free throw you create a trail through the forest now you can shoot the free throw because you've created that pathway in your brain but you probably don't make many shots because it's so new the pathway isn't very clear yet in order to improve your free-throw you need to refine and strengthen the free-throw pathway in your brain the way you do that is through practice practice gradually widens the trail through the trees turning it into a dirt road between a and B you're starting to get pretty good now you're making more free throws than not you don't have to think about the mechanics as much that's because the pathway gets stronger after each practice rapid and you've done a lot of reps with even more practice that dirt road turns into a paved road connecting a and B allowing information to be transmitted at a faster rate now you're a 70% free-throw shooter and when you step up to the line you don't even have to think about it eventually with enough practice what started as a trail has become a full-blown highway now you're a master draining almost every free-throw and the movement is completely second nature scientists call this plasticity and it's your brain's innate ability to create and strengthen connections between neurons these connections are the paths through the forest hallo sport optimizes this process by temporarily increasing plasticity in the part of your brain that controls movement so that your brain can create and strengthen these pathways faster than you would otherwise we call this hyper plasticity when you practice or train in the state you're able to write muscle memory more effectively allowing you to get that much more out of your practice in terms of our analogy halo Sport helps you build super highways of muscle memory at an accelerated rate it's not magic it's neuroscience [Music]

Channel: Halo Neuroscience

Views: 153,047

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Keywords: neuroscience, science, plasticity, brain, learning, learn, performance, train, athlete, biohacking, brain hack

Id: _nWMP68DqHE

Length: 3min 0sec (180 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 08 2019