How Things You Do Change Your Brain

Ever wonder how ballet dancers can spin and spin and spin, but never seem to get dizzy? Neuroplasticity, that's how! Anthony explains how it works, and how you can use your brain in the same way.

Read More:
Ballet dancers' brains adapt to stop them feeling dizzy
"Scientists have discovered differences in the brain structure of ballet dancers that may help them avoid feeling dizzy when they perform pirouettes."

The Neuroanatomical Correlates of Training-Related Perceptuo-Re?ex Uncoupling
in Dancers
"Sensory input evokes low-order re?exes and higher-order perceptual
responses."

Changes in London taxi drivers' brains driven by acquiring 'the Knowledge', study shows
"Acquiring 'the Knowledge' - the complex layout of central London's 25 000 streets and thousands of places of interest - causes structural changes in the brain and changes to memory in the capital's taxi drivers, new research funded by the Wellcome Trust has shown."

Increased Cortical Thickness in Sports Experts: A Comparison of Diving Players with the Controls
"Sports experts represent a population of people who have acquired expertise in sports training and competition."
THE PLASTIC HUMAN BRAIN CORTEX
"Plasticity is an intrinsic property of the human brain and represents evolution's invention to enable the nervous system to escape the restrictions of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures, physiologic changes, and experiences."

Strength increases from the motor program: comparison of training with maximal voluntary and imagined muscle contractions
"This study addressed potential neural mechanisms of the strength increase that occur before muscle hypertrophy. In particular we examined whether such strength increases may result from training-induced changes in voluntary motor programs."

Modulation of muscle responses evoked by transcranial magnetic stimulation during the acquisition of new fine motor skills
"We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to study the role of plastic changes of the human motor system in the acquisition of new fine motor skills."

Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers' Brains Grow to Navigate London's Streets
"Manhattan's midtown streets are arranged in a user-friendly grid. In Paris 20 administrative districts, or arrondissements, form a clockwise spiral around the Seine."

The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself
"It was a fairly modest experiment, as these things go, with volunteers trooping into the lab at Harvard Medical School to learn and practice a little five-finger piano exercise."

Do Musicians Have Different Brains?
"In the last twenty years, brain imaging studies have revealed that musical training has dramatic effects on the brain. Increases in gray matter (size and number of nerve cells) are seen, for example, in the auditory, motor, and visual spatial areas of the cerebral cortex of musicians."

Cocaine Use Leads to Rapid Growth of New Mouse Brain Structures
"Mice given cocaine showed rapid growth in new brain structures associated with learning and memory, according to a research team from the Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center at UC San Francisco."

Musicians' Brains Highly Developed
"New research shows that musicians' brains are highly developed in a way that makes the musicians alert, interested in learning, disposed to see the whole picture, calm, and playful."

Watch More:
How Much Brain Power Do We Use?
Do Brain Games Work?
Memory Malleability:
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Tra

[Seeker]

Spotting definitely helps to minimize dizziness. This study shows there's actually more going on in the brains of dancers who have been training longterm. -Anthony

[lilydeng]

But us dancers uses the spotting technique to help us to prevent dizziness

[harlie]

i want to train my brain to let go of anger and anxiety, to see the anger coming before it almost ruins my life

[midorialias]

I've already trained my brain with programming to become very efficient at understanding code and writing new code on the fly. In fact, I learned C# in about two weeks under pressure, simply because code and the concepts backing it have become so natural to me. I also plan to take up piano soon, now that I have a keyboard.

[nfcoard]

Habitual thoughts also change brain structure and functioning. It's her thoughts about herself that make her mean. She's projecting unto others how she feels about herself or how she feels in general.

[Lorofol]

I'm one of two people of all my friends who play musical instruments (piano and guitar) and I find that us two are definitely the nicest/kindest of everyone I know.

[Smokeshowgg]

i wanna train my brain to conduct multipliclation, factorization of 4 digit and larger  numbers as well as to be able to predict a prime number in a given range.

[shioth]

I am a puzzle cube solver. When i was in high school i was very physical uncoordinated and had fairly substantial issues catching balls. After i learned how to solve a Rubik's cube i became more proficient at catching things. As my ability to solve the spatially based puzzles improved so did my ability to handle other space related problems.

[ammarreda]

Awesome and informative and life changing and mindset building video

[AthenaNKnight]

This is awesome, literally become the person you want to be.

[GioLocated]

"Re-train your brain" echoed in my head while I watched this

[dragid]

While spotting, the head is still rotating though, so the semcircular canals in their ears are still being somewhat disoriented or at least I would think. When coupled with the brain's plasticity, it apparently shows that the brain further helps to suppress the disorientation.

[IcyVerse_]

I wanna train my brain so I don’t have to go to school!

[Lenahzrx]

Well I'm dancing ballet for 12 years and I'm 14 years now. They said to me that I have to look at one spot as long as my head turns and if I can't look at it anymore I have to turn my head to the other side as fast as I can(faster than my body) so my body turns on a normal tempo and my heads turns faster to look at the spot as long as posible

[JessicaSue]

I remember learning that in high school psych! That mental practice can be almost efficient as actually practicing...that was a long-ass time ago, and that stuck with me, haha. That's why I mentally practice vibrato on my violin....I still stuck though :-/

[xxSerpenttinexx]

This video gives me hope on my potential

[Phyience]

With the London Taxi drivers, the hippo campus wasn't stronger, a part ( i think posterior) of it was larger, while the other part (anterior) had shrunk, so it had shifted the hippo campus brain matter to where it was needed most.

[Seeker]

Of course! I think we just only had clips of female dancers. :) -Anthony

[brenda]

I love that the name and thumbnail of this video changed like 3 times xD

[deathman]

So is there a list that says what we can do to change our brain cause i want to change my brain to make it better I'm already in a orchestra and now I'm gonna try to play a sport and others