What changes take place in the brain when you learn something?

Question

Is it a proten change or electrical, how is the memory stored? Will it be posable to scan the brain of an educated person and copy the education to a new person? Is it worth putting a dead persons brain in liquid nitrogen in the hope the data could be recovered in the future.

Answer 1

I'm not sure even experienced brain-surgeons and neuroscientists know that for sure. I could take a shot at it, but I'm only a Palaeobiologist, so matters relating to brain tissue aren't exactly my strong point.

I'd imagine its probably stored much the same way that computer data is stored on a hard drive, to some extent. There is much more interconnectivity between brain-cells than between the various whatsits in computer hardware... but the general concept is the same. Signals across the nervous system are transmitted in a kind of binary afterall, though rather than a flow of electrons, its the flow of a Potassium / Sodium ion gradient that transmits the charge.

What I'm getting at is that most likely the cells, when learning something, will align themselves in a particular structure, specifically connected to other cells so that the correct associations can take place. To make a really crude example, when you're remembering a particular tree, the related cells should attach to cells that relate (or route through to others that do) to trees and cells that relate (likewise) to the particular attributes of the tree in question.
I very much doubt that any of it is stored at the protein level, as proteins have a tendency to physically affect things they come into contact with due to their make-up drastically altering their shape... and as such aren't a very efficient means of storing complex data (very simple beings can store their 'genes' purely in protein form, but it quickly becomes impractical the more complex the organism becomes).


As I mentioned though... this is largely speculation (an educated guess from someone who knows a moderate amount about biology), so don't be quoting it as truth. You'd be better off getting an answer from someone with a medical or cellular biology degree.
^_^;;

Answer 2

nobody really knows how the memory is stored or how much information a human brain can hold. There isn't one part of the brain associated with memory it tends to be scattered across different parts of the brain. As each part of the brain controls different abilities they become 'stronger' the more you 'exercise' them. The average human uses around 37% of their brain with some areas being stronger and higher in neural pathways than others.

Answer 3

When you learn something, you essentially are leaning to activate two sets of neurons, each encoding a concept, simultaneously. Learning is the process by which extensions from the dendrites--and I forget the technical name for the extensions, but dendrites are specifically the branches which carry changes from a neuron, not to it--shorten to make the simultaneous activation of these two concepts more likely, essentially thus building associations between such things as "green" and "plant."

Answer 4

@JasSinc is the staggering answer. learning something ameliorations the certainly structure of the mind, pretty the connections between neurones (synapses). No new gross structures are formed when we benefit information, yet synapses might want to correctly be reinforced or weakened (synaptic plasticity). consequently each and every idea/memory/theory (journey) which occurs in the mind is present circuitously in actual variety yet no longer in varieties we are used to (aka. no new gross mind structures). a particular memory doesn't have a distinct region in the mind; properly no longer thoroughly - there might want to correctly be a community (certain localised neuronal pathway) in the mind it is suitable/correlated to a particular memory notwithstanding it isn't, itself, the memory.

Answer 5

In our brains, plasticity (a brain's ability to adjust its structures to reflect life experiences) is reflected in many different ways

Nerve cells form more and larger synapses
Capillaries (tiny blood vessels that connect veins and arteries) increase in certain areas of the brain, enhancing the flow of blood and oxygen to brain tissue (this may further benefit nerve cells and brain chemical systems)
Glial cells—the brain's supportive cells—increase in size and number
Myelin, the fatty sheath that wraps axons and enhances the transmission of nerve signals, may increase
New neurons may be created (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus, which may enhance learning performance
A genetic switch turns newly-learned information into long-term memories, triggering the formation of a new protein.
Because our brains adapt to reflect the new information we feed it, we have the opportunity to improve our ability to learn and think.

Memory Of The Brain




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Answer 6

When we learn something, neural routes are formed, the more we do something, the stronger these routes are formed and the stronger the electrical signal between them is.

If we attempt something we haven't done for a while, the routes are faint, hence we find it hard to remember what to do.

Answer 7

A really basic answer to this question is that new neural path ways are constructed.

Answer 8

"Paths" are formed, synapses connect. Diseases like Altsheimer's eat that connection away. In the simplest of terms.

Answer 9

New brain cells and neurones are added.

Answer 10

You are Joe King, aren't you?