Scientists Reveal How to Hack your Brain (Neuroplasticity)

A girl is undergoing surgery. The goal is to remove one of her brain hemispheres. How did neuroplasticity help her to rewire her brain? At the same time, dementia (and especially Alzheimer's disease) is on the rise. Can we use neuroplasticity to learn new skills and lower the risk of getting dementia? Let's find out!

CS is a girl who suffered from a rare disorder called Rasmussen's encephalitis. As she suffered from regular seizures the only viable option was to remove one of her brain hemispheres. Although this is a highly risky surgery, CS did not only survive but her brain could also mostly compensate for its loss. The reason for this is a phenomenon called brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is a process where new connections within existing brain cells are formed. Brain plasticity always happens when we learn new things and the great thing is that brain plasticity can also help to rewire or hack our brains. Studies have shown that neuroplasticity led to larger hippocampuses in taxi drivers and lower amygdalas in people who reduce their stress. If you want to hack your brain (rewire your brain) through brain plasticity you need to learn new things. Learning a second language for example changes brain regions and lead to a better attention span. A healthy diet and exercise can promote brain metabolism and improve brain plasticity. You can also rewire or hack your brain by reducing the amounts of stress. Besides making us smarter, learning new things also helps to reduce the risk of getting mild forms of dementia. Brain plasticity can lead to cognitive reserves here meaning that it takes more damages to the brain until we develop symptoms. Of course, brain plasticity does not exclude the possibility to develop dementia (or Alzheimer's disease) but in can help to alleviate symptoms and lower the risk!

00:00-1:01 Intro
1:01-4:10 How Neuroplasticity Works
4:10-7:38 How to (Naturally) Hack Your Brain
7:38-11:24 How Neuroplasticity Fights Alzheimer’s Disease

References:
CS' story:

Images:
Vitruvian man by Hans Bernhard (Schnobby), CC BY-SA 3.0
London map by OpenStreetMap, CC BY-SA 2.0
Brown eyes by Stockfootage, CC BY-SA 3.0
Senile plaques by User:KGH, CC BY-SA 3.0

Music:
Title: Black heat by Ross Budgen (CC BY 4.0)
Title: Filaments by Scott Buckley d (CC BY 3.0)
Light Sting by Kevin MacLeod (CC By 4.0)
Title: Buddha by Kontekst
Genre and Mood: Hip Hop & Rap + Bright
About Clemens Steinek:

CLEMENS STEINEK is a PhD student/youtuber (LifeLabLearner/ Sciencerely) who is currently conducting stem cell research in Germany.

[vl.]

Shortly:
- Learn new things (e.g. language, music)
- Polyphenols (in fruits, veggies, tea)
- Intermittent fasting
- Exercise
- Stress management (and meditation)

[karaokerebel]

Karaoke is very effective against depression! I am now 80 and I began Karaoke about 6 years ago. I met people who are busy learning new songs constantly; we meet and sit together while we welcome new friends and encourage them along. I also enjoy dressing up and looking my best. the music gets my body moving. Practicing new songs improves my neuroplasticity...and my attitude !!! TRY IT FOLKS & THE SOONER, THE BETTER. ALLELUHIA

[TypicallyUniqueOfficial]

I work in a lab that studies neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. It’s my most favorite research I’ve done and the things the brain is capable of is mind blowing.

[InsightEnigma]

I seriously love that the brain is capable of so many things, and what I find the most exciting is that you are not born with the same brain you are able to get. We can do so much to improve our brain structure, but yet people always find a way to complain. I doubt that genetics played a massive role in geniuses in the 20th century. I think that self improvement played as big role as their genetics did. Keep learning and you'll see benefits!

[JCG]

"Brain Building" by Marilyn Savant is my favorite book on learning how to think, 150+ tips and habits.

[Ashtarot]

She achieved amazing things with half a brain while most normal people can't even perform simple tasks with a whole one.

[nick_jacob]

I tried a 1 hour window to eat from 5pm to 6pm and then I didn't eat for 23 hours. After a week of this, I woke up one morning and I felt like I could remember anything I had learned that week instantly. I could feel my brain firing and thinking so clearly. I think the food we eat has a significant weight on our mental and physical health in our lifetime. I'm trying so hard to eat meat, raw veggies and fruit daily and nothing else. Sometimes I go off the wagon. Sugar definitely hinders my thought process. Really enjoyed your video by the way!

[lyleneander]

I'm 70 this year, do swing dancing, play guitar, do loads of cycling and lift weights, heavy-duty. I'm learning Japanese and I'm researching a book on social justice and the Bible. I'm not trying to avoid dementia but to live a full and rich life. This video was so encouraging and I just might resume ballroom dancing again. Thank you.

[redhidinghood]

I was expecting more detailed information/some concrete ways of improving neuroplasticity. Like you didn't mention that trying to do something new and failing triggers neuroplasticity while doing that thing, and that the consolidation of that newly learned skill/knowledge happens at sleep, which is why sleep is so important for neuroplasticity and learning.

[johnholme]

I’m a life long learner, I learn something new everyday. I am particularly interested in mathematics and physics and consequently my visual spatial ability as improved considerably! I also like to keep abreast with modern technology. I’m 54 years old and still has curious has I was when I was 18! Probably more so! The more you learn, the more you realise what you don’t know! It’s not something I force myself to do, it’s something I have to do. I’ve always been very curious.

[jonahjerryson]

Thank you so much for putting this together.

[sinfulpotato]

1) learn new skills ( second language)
2) good diet and exercise.
3) stress management.
That's how you rewire your brain.

( if your seeing this pls provide solutions for maladaptive daydreaming, I was diagnosed at 13, am 17 things were going better but the study stress has increased I drift back aty dream world only to realize it's midnight and I haven't got anything done sine afternoon, just running round and round in circles smiling and muttering with myself.)

[yakuzzi]

Imagine having to make this decision as a parent, omg

[ivanodriscoll]

That was a really cool video. Great to hear ways to help people avoid and also help with dementia.Thanks.

[mikahist]

I have its, live in Isolation.. and i lost so much possibilty to learn or better to say to be excited-"happy" to learn something new!

[Melanie____]

I learn french.. is started for a couple years just audio. And then added writing.. I feel like I could literally feel the connections being made that week I started writing and reading it.. it was so stimulating I couldn’t sleep. It was like my brain was like - hey we need to connect all this aural connection over in word box too. It lasted for like a few weeks. A lot of french learning makes me realise how childrens brains are amazing too doing their learning and growing.

I watched a news thing on neroplastictiy when I was near start saying the brain can learn anything with enough repetition i think that that has helped me in the language learning journey.

[yourlocaltoad]

I have adhd and often experience hyperfocus where I will spend days researching a new interest of mine nearly non-stop and I usually also retain most of that information long term, so my pathways for focusing, learning and memorising are somewhat well trained, but I still can’t bring myself to do all that for university or work.

Of course that’s also influenced by adhd influencing the pathways that determine how easy it is to focus on something, but it’s still quite interesting.
I have been trying to find a way to teach my brain to focus on such things for quite some time now, but so far I haven’t found anything.

[mttaylor]

Fascinating, helpful, and well organized! Thank you.

[Thepinkxx]

I can attest that before learning a second language I was pretty average but very creative. After learning a new language I definitely feel a change in the way I learn and see things. I had a good memory before but right now I have a very good memory. Also reading books helped me.

[cogs]

the brain seemed like a machine to me, doing math, logic, etc. but i realized it's an organic thing. it can grow and react. the fact that it can think abstractly and can involuntarily control our body is genius in its construction. it doesn't matter what we don't know, the brain can learn it piece by piece. if we're injured, it is able to figure out how to heal. i believe with the right biofeedback, the brain can figuratively wrap itself around anything.