A new Pitt study has upended decades-old assumptions about brain plasticity(pittwire.pitt.edu)
pittwire.pitt.edu
A new Pitt study has upended decades-old assumptions about brain plasticity
https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/accolades-honors/2025/06/03/neuroscience-synaptic-transmission-science-advances
15 comments
Kind of supports the "background threads" model I have for our brains - that the brain is constantly gnawing away at problems, and the solutions often present at a later date, often feeling as if arbitrarily.
I realized this in my late teens, and have been actively using it for difficult problems.
If I'm stuck I just go do something entirely different for a while, and when I come back the solution is usually immediately obvious.
If I'm stuck I just go do something entirely different for a while, and when I come back the solution is usually immediately obvious.
When I get stuck on a problem, I have this mental space/process I engage where I tell myself I'm going to let my subconscious work it out while I focus on other things. Often I do this before a nap or bed. I still do this, and have been doing it for as long as I can remember. It works more often than not.
The hardest thing for me is remembering this and not just sitting there fruitlessly banging my head against a problem.
It's really hard to step away because feels like you're quitting. But the time that you "lose" taking a break for your brain it will be rewarded when you get back to it. I struggled with that for so many years, now I finally accepted that I'm just doing this to be in a better place when I return to the problem.
You might be increasing the resources affected to the background thread or its priority. I too try to run as many background loops all the time, to be prompted by insights at the weirdest fun times and banging my head against problems seem to increase the number and insighfulness of these prompts. Frustration, more context, spite... Who knows.
I strongly agree.
You know what is weird. This is oddly personal but, idk, bear with me.
I was a software dev that went to seminary in my youth (started coding professionally at 15, went to seminary at 18) I intellectually "deconstructed" about 9 years ago around 30 but it significantly reduced my brain power for years, every time I slept my brain kept revisiting existential questions, it wasn't until I felt I had come to emotional peace with that deconstruction and had also identified a new rational/personally satisfying grounding for meaning that all that background processing freed up.
You see I've observed, within my co-hort that I've met and spoken with, that I'm on the far end of the spectrum for solving problems overnight. My productivity has always been high but with single day lag for difficult problems.
I may have had a bit of religious fixation/borderline OCD on the subject, my parents certainly had to work quite a bit when I was younger to use positive re-inforcement to short circuit some compulsive repetitive behaviors I had, idk, I was never officially diagnosed.
You know what is weird. This is oddly personal but, idk, bear with me.
I was a software dev that went to seminary in my youth (started coding professionally at 15, went to seminary at 18) I intellectually "deconstructed" about 9 years ago around 30 but it significantly reduced my brain power for years, every time I slept my brain kept revisiting existential questions, it wasn't until I felt I had come to emotional peace with that deconstruction and had also identified a new rational/personally satisfying grounding for meaning that all that background processing freed up.
You see I've observed, within my co-hort that I've met and spoken with, that I'm on the far end of the spectrum for solving problems overnight. My productivity has always been high but with single day lag for difficult problems.
I may have had a bit of religious fixation/borderline OCD on the subject, my parents certainly had to work quite a bit when I was younger to use positive re-inforcement to short circuit some compulsive repetitive behaviors I had, idk, I was never officially diagnosed.
My best work was done this way but I do find for myself that it has a capricious nature and I can't force it but really when it comes down to it - I have to be really interested and engaged in the problem and this isn't always the case at your job.
IIRC this is the "diffuse mode" I recall the "Learning How to Learn" course discussing.
it is nice to have it codified but this shouldn't really be news to anyone that has spent any time learning a musical instrument.
Or a second language later in life while trying to achieve a native sounding accent. Yeah, you can sound fluent just fine. My complaint with brain plasticity with age and language learning is that… well… when you’re younger you have more _time_ to learn something and are less burdened by chores, work, obligations, kids, and so on.
Turns out that if you use the language as much as a native person, with special attention to accent development, you can achieve high proficiency just fine.
Turns out that if you use the language as much as a native person, with special attention to accent development, you can achieve high proficiency just fine.
I meant specifically that improvements can be made latently between active practice, in the case of actual improving neuroplasticity as an adult the book Peak echoes exactly what you're saying, I've seen people here also suggest the keto diet can contribute but haven't explored the evidence.
How do you figure?