The Brain That Changes

For much of the twentieth century, adult brains were often described as far less changeable than developing brains. That view softened over decades as evidence accumulated for adult learning, cortical remapping, and limited adult neurogenesis.

The modern word is neuroplasticity: the brain changes its structure and function in response to use, injury, and experience.

Rewiring runs on two mechanisms. Synaptic plasticity tunes connections you already have, strengthening the ones you fire often and weakening the rest. Structural plasticity goes further, growing entirely new connections and, in a few regions like the hippocampus, even new neurons through neurogenesis. Together they keep your brain under construction for life.