Brain plasticity

In the neuroscientific field, brain plasticity refers to the nervous system’s ability to adapt its structure in response to a variety of internal or external factors and stimuli, and thus to be shaped by experience. The potential for adaptation in humans, as in other animals, can be observed, for example, through the increase in the size of specific brain regions following their repeated use over time. When neuronal cells are more active, they form a greater number of synapses with each other, so that brain reorganization is correlated with learningIl termine apprendimento - con i sinonimi imparare, assimila... More. Factors such as sensory deprivation, trauma, and brain damage, on the other hand, constitute negative events after which the central nervous system suffers detrimental consequences.

How to stimulate brain plasticity?

The ability of our brain to reorganize itself is the physiological basis of the very possibility of learning. Our brain is not a closed system; on the contrary, it is in constant transformation. As Dutch neuroscientist Margriet Sitskoorn states, the human brain is an open system, not a closed one: it changes at every moment with the reception of new inputs, in a process of constant exchange with the outside, but also with our own inner movements.

Listen here to the 21-Minute podcast featuring a dialogue between Patrizio Paoletti and Margriet Sitskoorn titled “Homo Verus: how to cultivate the love for change“.