You’ve had a tough few months in work. You were assigned to a new project 6 months ago and the learning curve was steep. You’re pretty exhausted but you’ve learnt a lot. In fact, when you look back you can’t believe just how much you know now that you didn’t know then.
But did you know that it’s not only your knowledge that has increased? Your brain has physically grown in size as well.
Every time you learn something new you shape your brain’s internal connections. Remember Pavlov’s dogs? (see link to blog here) Pavlov trained his dogs to associate the sound of a bell ringing with food. Whenever the bell was rung they started drooling. What happened in the brain is called Hebbian learning [1].
Initially, the part of the dog’s brain that controls drool was completely independent from the part that controls hearing. When the dogs saw food the part of their brain that controls drool would jump into action but the hearing part would be dormant. Because Pavlov kept ringing the bell whenever the dogs were drooling their brain connection changed. They developed a physical connection between the hearing and drooling parts of their brain.
This means that whenever you learn something new you physically change your brain.
This becomes even more fascinating when we consider the more complicated tasks that we all do in school or the workplace.
Researchers in Germany examined this when they studied the brains of students studying for final exams. They put students in a brain scanner so that they could see the size of different parts of their brains on three different occasions: while they were studying, while they were doing the exams and when they had finished.
They found that between studying and finishing the exams the part of the brain responsible for memory had physically grown in size. Not only that but it kept growing even 3 months after the students had finished their exams [2].
Sure, bigger is not always better but in the case of your brain it is usually a good thing. In fact, increasing the size of your brain from learning new things keeps it healthy as you get older [3].
So the next time you’re embarking on a daunting new project in work don’t stress, your brain will thank you for tending to it when you get through the other side.
References
- Hebb, D.O. (1949).The Organization of Behavior. New York: Wiley & Sons.
- Draganski, B., Gaser, C., Kempermann, G., Kuhn, H. G., Winkler, J., Büchel, C., & May, A. (2006). Temporal and spatial dynamics of brain structure changes during extensive learning. The Journal of Neuroscience, 26(23), 6314-6317.
- Robertson, I. H. (2013). A noradrenergic theory of cognitive reserve: implications for Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiology of aging, 34(1), 298-308.
