What is neuroplasticity?

March 20, 2018Posted inneurologism

I was asked this question on Quora:

Can you explain to a layman what neuroplasticity entails?

Neuroplasticity is the umbrella term for all of the brain’s mechanisms for learning and memory.

Since the average layperson already knows about learning and memory, I’m not sure whether there are any interesting implications.

Unless of course you are surprised that the brain is involved in learning and memory. Then the implications are vast. 🙂

Is a memory a bunch of atoms? And does this mean we can transfer exact memories?

March 15, 2018Posted inneurologism

I was asked the following question on Quora.

“Are specific memories just arrangements of atoms in our brains? Could you put certain molecules in someones head and give them an exact memory that you had?“

Short answer: No.

Modern science has shown that every thing is an arrangement of atoms: neurons, apples, tables, rockets, asteroids, aardvarks… they are all made up of atoms.

The question now is this: is a memory a thing?

No New Neurons? No Problem!

March 12, 2018Posted inneurologism

This answer was written in response to the following Quora question:

New research has found no neurogenesis in human adults, could this mean there is none or could it mean that neural stem cells are undetectable with the used techniques? What are your thoughts on this?

It’s good that you’re thinking of such things, since that is exactly what researchers themselves have to do, and what reviewers do. In order to show that the method works, there have to be adequate controls as part of the experiment.

And this is in fact the case. The paper would not have been published without controls.