Experience and changing connections
Explore how experience can be associated with changes in neural connections.
The picture in words
- Experience
- Practice supplies repeated patterns of activity.
- Changing connections
- Connections can change with activity and other processes.
- Learning
- Changes across networks contribute to learning.
Reading the illustration
Compare the same network before and after practice. Changed connections illustrate how experience can be associated with changes in neural communication.
Try a question
Why would researchers study both practice and neural change?
Show the explanation
Behavioral improvement and changes in neural activity provide different evidence. Comparing them helps investigate how learning is supported.
Read the sources
- Yao, D. (n.d.). BrainFacts/SfN: How does the brain learn from experience? https://www.brainfacts.org/thinking-sensing-and-behaving/learning-and-memory/2024/how-does-the-brain-learn-from-experience-052924Selected rendered article passages: Plasticity definition and expert interview opening.