Lifelong Learning
The Science of Learning: Understanding How the Brain Adapts and Grows
April 11, 2025
April 11, 2025
Hello learners! In this article, we're going off the beaten path. No, we won’t ask you questions or put you on the spot. Instead, we’ll take baby steps back to a time you might not remember and explore how your brain evolved from grasping small details around you to learning language and finally to the various learning journeys you’ve taken throughout your life up to this very moment. Ready? Let’s go.
The brain is the most complex part of the human body. This three-pound organ serves as the center of intelligence, a sensory interpreter, a movement originator, and a behavior regulator. It controls every bodily function necessary for life, including thought, memory, emotion, touch, motor skills, vision, respiration, temperature, and hunger.
As you may know, different parts of the brain control various bodily functions, each with specific names. However, when it comes to learning, the process is more complex. Learning does not occur in just one region of the brain but involves multiple areas working together.
The hippocampus is involved in forming new memories and spatial navigation. The prefrontal cortex is essential for planning, decision-making, and complex thought. The cerebellum plays a role in motor learning and coordination. This process is referred to as neuroplasticity.
In proper terms, neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, is the brain's ability to change and adapt in response to experience, learning, or injury. This remarkable property allows the brain to reorganize its structure, functions, and connections throughout an individual's life.
When talking about adaptability, for much of the 20th century, scientists believed that the brain’s structure was fixed after childhood. However, groundbreaking research in the latter half of the century revealed that the brain remains adaptable and capable of change throughout life. There are three main steps in the brain adaptation process. To make this easily understandable to you, let’s imagine that you are just a baby, new to this world.
When you were born, you didn’t know anything about the world, the environment around you, or the people you encountered. To survive and thrive, you began adapting to your surroundings. First, you explored your environment; then, you gradually learned to stand, balance, and walk. You also started picking up words and understanding their meanings. With each new exploration and detail you grasp, your brain actively produced new neurons.
This step of creating new neurons is called neurogenesis. As you have learned at some point in your studies, neurons are the cells that receive sensory information from the outside world, transmit movement directions to our muscles, and convert and relay electrical signals at each stage. Neurogenesis occurs when we learn something new by engaging in an activity.
By this point, as a baby, you were aware of your environment and had learned to walk, stand, and hold objects firmly. As you practiced these actions repeatedly, the connections between neurons in your brain, particularly those involved in motor control and coordination, became stronger. For example, when you took a few steps, the neurons responsible for controlling your leg muscles fired repeatedly. Over time, these repeated activities strengthened the synapses—the connections between neurons—making it easier for you to maintain balance and coordinate your steps.
This particular process is called Synaptic Plasticity, which changes the strength of connections between neurons. When you practice a skill or learn new information, the synapses between neurons become stronger, making it easier to recall that information or perform that skill in the future.
The last phase of the brain adaptation is called myelination.
Some time had passed, and as a baby, you had gotten more used to the world around you. You knew your surroundings, recognized sounds, and identified people. As a result, you were more confident in life as things started to make more sense than before. This was part of the myelination process, which increased the speed at which signals were transmitted between neurons, crucial for motor skills.
As you practiced new things, myelination helped your brain communicate more efficiently with your muscles, improving your reaction time and coordination. This process is especially important during childhood but continues into adulthood as well.
Every single thing you've adapted to throughout your life has gone through the adaptation process in your mind until it becomes something you are aware of. However, do not misunderstand the adaptation process as with the learning process of the brain.
While Adaptation refers to the broader process of how the brain adjusts and changes in response to new experiences, environmental demands, or learning, the learning process is specific to how information or skills are acquired and become ingrained in memory. It is a subset of adaptation that typically occurs in three phases.
Now, let’s explore them by going back to the days when your music teacher taught you how to play a musical instrument. For the article, let’s imagine that it’s a piano.
On the exciting first day of your piano lessons, you didn’t know a lot about the piano. You had seen people play it but had no idea how they played so beautifully. When you went to the music room, your teacher introduced you to the piano, its structure, musical notes, finger placements, basic scales, and keys.
This is the acquisition phase, where you encounter new information or a new skill for the first time. During this phase, you're introduced to concepts, facts, or actions that you need to understand or perform.
As you practiced the piano scales you learned, your brain worked to reinforce the connections between neurons related to playing those scales. This repeated practice helped you remember the notes and movements without consciously thinking about them. This is the consolidation phase.
When you sat down at the piano and played a scale without looking at the keys or thinking about each note, you were in the retrieval phase. You used what you had learned and practiced, drawing on your memory to perform the task.
This is called the retrieval phase. At this stage, you actively recall and use the information or skill you’ve learned. Successful retrieval indicates that the learning has been effectively consolidated. This phase is crucial because it tests how well the knowledge or skill has been internalized.
You must now have a good understanding of how the brain adapts and learns through the processes we discussed. Therefore, it’s time to focus on how you can support your brain's health and ability to learn and adapt.
Apply the insights from this article to your own learning journey. Experiment with different techniques, stay curious and keep your brain healthy.
Happy learning!
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