Neuroplasticity: How New Experiences Impact Your Brain

a close-up of a game board When it comes to defining neuroplasticity, there’s a little quiz that neuroscientist Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D ., likes to pose. Think about how much control you have over changing the health of your heart, your brain, and your teeth. What order would you put those in—meaning, which of those do you have the most control over, in terms of improving how well they work?

“If you’re like most people, you’ll say your teeth, heart, and then brain,” says Dr. Chapman, the chief director of the Center for Brain Health at the University of Texas at Dallas. “But it’s actually the opposite: Brain, heart, teeth. The brain is more changeable than our teeth. We care for our teeth several times a day—if we cared for our brain that much, it would be phenomenal.”

And that, says Dr. Chapman, is neuroplasticity . “Neuroplasticity means that our brain’s systems—the neurons and the connections between them—are highly modifiable. And the way they’re modified is by how we use our brain,” she says. “The old thinking was that your brain is fixed and set pretty much after adolescence, and nothing could be further from the truth. Our brain changes moment by moment by everything we think, create, and feel. Neuroplasticity just means it’s changing. And it can change in good ways or bad ways.” The brilliant network

A quick, simplified 101 on the brain: Neurons are nerve cells; electrical signals are sent from neuron to neuron via a vast network of connections between them. It’s those connections that allow us to think and feel emotions. The brain’s network is vast and complicated, made up of 120 billion neurons.

Neuroplasticity is the ability of your brain to make new neural pathways, and change the ones that already exist, in response to changes in your behavior and environment. It’s also what lets the brain rewire itself after the damaging effects of a stroke or other traumatic events that have an impact a person’s abilities.

To envision this, says Dr. Chapman, think about the massive networks involved in air traffic—all the different flying patterns and airports and hubs. “Your brain has different hubs in different flight patterns, different connection patterns,” she says. “Those connections can change and rewire and reconfigure based on how we use it.” When a plane is flying and there’s a storm at one location, it can be rerouted to a different airport—and the brain does that too: “When part of the brain is not working as well, the brain has the capability to work around things and still get places—it just might take a little bit longer.”

Dr. Chapman is the co-leader of the BrainHealth Project at the Center for Brain Health, a scientific study to measure people’s ability to affect their brain fitness. She explains that there are different levels of how the brain specifically changes in response to stimuli. “For instance, how the different neurons communicate with each other—how fast the brain sends signals—can change,” says Dr. Chapman. “You know when you’re having trouble finding a thought or word? Your brain’s speed is a little bit sluggish. Let’s say you haven’t slept well. The speed of connectivity across the different networks works more slowly—and you feel those changes rapidly the next morning.” This is an example, she points out, of neuroplasticity and how quickly the brain can change as a result of our behavior and other stimuli.

Along with the connectivity of the neurons, Dr. Chapman adds, neurochemicals change too. “You’ve got these connections that are wired together, but the signals are sent through chemicals called neurotransmitters, and those change too by how you use your brain. You’re changing the neural chemistry of your brain by how you use it or don’t use it.”

Scientists can measure so much more about the brain than they could even eight years ago, Dr. Chapman says. “In the past, we used to only be able to look at how the structure of the brain changes, and structure changes much more slowly.” Now, science can see how brain function changes as well, she says. “If you’re multitasking and have constant distractions, or are sleep deprived or chronically angry, these are things that can be literally toxic to the connections and the neurotransmitters.” And that’s neuroplasticity too, she points out. Wellness for your mind

Brain science is constantly exploding and evolving, but current research shows various ways neuroplasticity is influenced. Chronic stress, for example, has been shown in studies to have a negative impact. And a healthy diet, regular exercise, and good sleep habits have been shown to have a positive effect.

Dr. Chapman believes that multitasking is a particularly toxic habit when it comes to brain health. “When you’re multitasking, you’re fraying the connectivity,” she says. The brain is designed to focus on one thing at a time, she says, and when you multitask, you’re asking your brain to toggle between two tasks.

Also toxic for the brain is constant distractions—for example, not being able to focus for more than three minutes. “That’s the average time people can attend to a task now, because of how we use technology,” Dr. Chapman says. “In the BrainHealth Project training, we like to get people to focus on a task for at least 20 minutes, or even 45 minutes if they’re doing something that requires innovative thinking.” It’s so hard for people, she adds, because we’ve trained our brains to be distracted. “Because of that, you’re not building strong pathways for your frontal lobe network,” she says.

Another key idea in the BrainHealth Project is what Dr. Chapman calls big idea thinking . “That’s what allows your brain to strengthen those frontal lobe networks and to continuously build a stronger functioning brain,” she says. Taking in too much information makes the brain “kind of a shallow processor. So big idea thinking is when you take in less information and do more with it, go deeper with it and synthesize it. ‘What are the themes? What is the essence? How […]

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