Do Your Brain Grow Through Neuroplasticity?
It’s long been thought that once we reach adulthood, our brains are pretty much set in stone. We might be able to improve our mental skills through practice and learning, but it was generally believed that the overall structure and size of our brains was unchangeable. However, recent research has shown that this isn’t the case at all our brains actually have a remarkable ability to change and adapt, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.
So, does this mean that we can actually grow our brains?
The answer isn’t entirely straightforward, as it depends on what you mean by “grow”. If you’re talking about increasing the overall size of the brain, then unfortunately the answer is no our brains reach their maximum size early in adulthood and don’t usually get any bigger after that.
However, neuroplasticity does allow us to make changes to the existing structure and circuitry of our brains. We can form new connections between neurons and even create entirely new neurons from scratch. So while we can’t necessarily grow our brains in the sense of making them bigger, we can certainly grow them in terms of making them more complex and efficient.
In short, then, neuroplasticity is an amazing ability that we all have to change and adapt our brains throughout our lives. It’s one of the things that makes us human, and it’s something that we should all strive to take advantage of.
So if you’re looking for ways to improve your mental skills and abilities, don’t forget that your brain has the power to change itself so use it!