The neuroscience of learning.

when i was 13

i started learning to play the guitar

and i immediately faced the challenges

that millions of kids

must have faced before me my fingers

were too small

to play the strings too weak to press

them

properly and my hands were too untrained

to move from note to note so the first

one month

was half formed unclear painful notes

that sounded bad

and felt worse but the second month

nothing much changed but the third month

something did change

my fingers weren’t hurting the same way

they were pressing on the notes

a lot better and the chords were

actually sounding like

chords i could play my first chord after

three months of practice which was the a

chord arguably the easiest chord to play

and after six months of practice i could

play my first bar

chord i wish i could say that i learned

a big lesson that day but i was so

excited to

call myself a guitarist that all i could

do was look forward to college

and impressing other people with my

first a chord

i decided to take a biology and become a

doctor gave a couple of

entrance exams got decent ranks did my

mbbs from

grant medical college in mumbai and my

md medicine from km hospital in mumbai

and when i entered my residency i faced

a challenge that thousands of residents

had faced before me

my medical knowledge was too less to

understand the complexities of the cases

in front of me my hands were too

untrained to do all the procedures that

were expected of me

and my time management skills were not

good enough for me to finish the tasks i

had to do

each day it was like i was learning the

guitar all over again

but with human lives at stake i found

myself constantly reading to update my

knowledge

practicing medical procedures and my

efficiency kept getting better

after three to four months of residency

i

found myself recognizing the patterns

between different diseases

and i was actually finishing my work in

time and

getting a good night’s sleep not every

day but

some days and subconsciously something

else was happening

i was developing a confidence that

whatever be the task

i can learn it i was learning to learn

this got me curious about the process of

learning what happens in the brain

when we learn this led me to be

interested in neurology and neuroscience

i took up my dm neurology in sgpgi

in lucknow and four years later here i

am talking to you

about the neuroscience behind learning

so what is learning to put it simply

learning is the intake and storage

of new information and forming new

connections

with existing information learning is

something we spend a lot of time on

almost all our childhood and a

significant part of our adult lives

goes in the act of learning something

whether it’s a new language

a new skill a new concept every ted talk

you listen to

is giving you new information you

probably didn’t have

so let us look at the three aspects of

learning

from a neuroscience perspective

first is intake the intake of new

information

requires a sensory apparatus

all the information you receive enters

your brain through one of your five

senses

through your touch taste smell sound and

sight when i’m talking to you this

information is reaching you through your

ears

it hits your tympanic membrane and the

cochlea inside your ear converts it into

electric signals

these electric signals are taken up into

your brain

in a place called as the auditory cortex

inside your temporal lobe this is where

these electric signals are decoded

into information that you perceive as

sounds

as words and meanings

similarly my expressions my gestures

reach your eyes hit your retina

where it is converted into electric

signals that are sent to your

visual cortex inside your occipital lobe

and again this is where your brain

understands these electric signals

as images shapes meaningful

visualizations similarly for touch and

the somatosensory cortex and so on

this is intake of information and this

is step one of learning an important

step no doubt

the more you intake the more you learn

but

as essential as this is i believe this

is the

easiest aspect of learning the next step

is putting all this information together

and making

sense of all your senses every

primary sensory cortex like the auditory

cortex like the occipital cortex

has a secondary association

cortex which has the role of putting all

the pieces of this jigsaw

back together and forming a big picture

this is where our brain constructs a

three-dimensional

view of the world around us and what we

perceive

as reality and this is the reality

that our brain must now learn but it’s

not enough to just let information

in that information must also be stored

and this is where memory comes in memory

is the glue

that holds reality together memory is

what

links each moment to the next and gives

reality the uninterrupted feeling of

time

passing there are different types of

memory there is the

immediate memory for instance if

somebody gives you their phone number

the amount of time you need to remember

those digits

to take out your phone enter those

digits and

store their contact is what immediate

memory is

along with the five other details of

where and how you met because that’s how

all contact names are stored in the

brain the immediate memory also known as

the working memory

is stored in the prefrontal cortex which

is at the front

of your brain in your frontal lobe what

if you don’t have your phone with you

well assuming you get over your anxiety

you will have to

memorize it in other words learn it

this is where long-term memory comes in

and this

is where your hippocampus which is an

area

deep within the temporal cortex comes

into play

the hippocampus has the role of storing

your long-term

memories and the process of

converting your immediate memories into

long-term memories that you will just

remember

is what is learning but getting

something to stay on as a long-term

memory is not easy

most of the information that we receive

is subconsciously perceived and

lost we see hundreds of faces in a day

at least we used to before this pandemic

but most of them don’t really hit our

conscious perception

they would barely register over in our

working memory for a second or two

and then just fade away but the faces

that we do remember

are the faces we see every day or

the faces that we see in a context which

is important to us

like a first date for instance in other

words there are two things that decide

if a piece of information will get

stored on

as a long-term memory repetition

and context so let’s talk of repetition

when a new piece of information enters

the hippocampus one of the things that

happens is

formation of new synapses

a synapse is the connection between two

neurons which are brain

cells but a new synapse is fragile and

can very easily break

or rather that memory can get lost

unless it is

strengthened repeated firing of that

synapse

will lead to something called as

long-term potentiation or

ltp which is one of the fundamental

building blocks of learning the synapse

gets stronger and stronger

which means it takes progressively less

effort

to fire it until you are doing it

without thinking

as if it is a habit this is how

practice leads to habit which will

become

intuition you end up doing something

without

thinking now let’s talk of context just

like the saying

no man is an island similarly no piece

of information

exists in isolation everything you know

is connected to something

else that you know your brain is

constantly looking for patterns and

every new piece of information

must fit into a pre-existing pattern

to be understood there are many ways of

visualizing this

i visualize it as a knowledge tree if i

were to tell you something new

like a new fact it’s like handing you a

new

leaf of information your brain will

register it

and look for a place in the knowledge

tree

to place it a branch of other similar

things

to group it with if you do find

something like that

this new piece of information becomes a

part of a larger picture

and fits in and therefore it becomes

easier to remember

new connections start forming between

neurons or new synapses

and they become progressively stronger

because of long-term potentiation

and this process is called as

neuroplasticity which brings me to my

first

two learning to learn hacks that i use

to learn better practice more

and find better context it also brings

me to the first

pitfall of learning if a new piece of

information

does not fit in easily it could lead to

anxiety or

fear our brains need to make things fit

into a pattern is so great

that often we may end up making patterns

prematurely

just to make space for new information

that doesn’t fit

or they may even modify the information

itself to make it fit better this

is a form of cognitive bias that needs

to be looked out

for now the information you’re getting

is in familiar territory your brain

already knows what to do with it

the networks are in place the patterns

are already formed and you are

comfortable learning this but suppose it

is unfamiliar information

a new job a new language a project that

is outside of your comfort zone

this is an uncomfortable situation like

an animal outside of its natural habitat

the brain reacts in a different way when

forced to learn something that

doesn’t fit you may have heard of the

limbic system

it’s an ancient part of the brain that

controls emotions

one of the parts of the limbic system is

an area called amygdala

which gets activated whenever there is a

threat

and activation of the amygdala leads to

a hormone called

cortisol which is a stress hormone and

cortisol has an important role to play

in the formation of new synapses

or neuroplasticity in other words stress

is an important factor for learning we

think of stress as a negative thing

but stress is also a sign that your

brain is taking something seriously if a

new piece of information

does not elicit any stress like one of

the hundreds of faces that we pass in

the street

it might not register long enough to be

converted

into a long-term memory your amiga

activation

has a key role to play in focus

motivation

and distraction like any student

learning a new topic the day before the

exam

can tell you a little bit of stress acts

like a great boost for learning

but it is not something that i would

recommend depending on

because too much stress can very easily

trigger

anxiety and panic which act as a

detriment to learning

so the third learning to learn hack that

i use

is optimizing your stress now this is

something that is easier said than done

but i’ve realized that it is something

we all do subconsciously

we all have an idea of our own stress

sweet spot

where too little means you’re bored and

too much

means you’re frustrated and that optimum

zone in the middle

is where productivity and learning

happens

and this brings me to the final part of

my talk which is failure

now the idea of failure has been

ingrained in us as something to avoid

but failure is actually feedback

in the loop of learning learning is not

a linear process

because our neural networks are not

linear everything in the brain happens

in circles

as feedback loops information going back

and forth

so an important part of learning new

information is putting that information

back into the world

in some form in other words teaching is

a great way of learning

why is it important to learn to learn

our knowledge of the brain is still

growing

but this is an important conversation to

be had

right from schools everybody learns

differently

and understanding the science behind

learning

can help children learn better children

with learning disability dyslexia adhd

they will benefit

from an early diagnosis and a greater

understanding

of how learning happens in the brain the

networks that are used to learn

are formed in childhood but they

continue evolving in

adults i have realized that learning to

learn has an exponential benefit

the more you learn the easier it becomes

to learn new things

in the last three months i’ve been

experimenting with learning

i’ve been taking up new projects

upgrading old projects and

trying out these techniques to improve

the outcome apart from my life as a

doctor and a neurologist and seeing

patients and learning to treat them

better

i’m learning to write poetry play the

guitar give music

to poetry and make songs shoot and edit

videos

i’ve started a youtube channel to

explore neuroscience

and normalize talking about neural

networks

in relation to learning to behavior to

mental health

and to everyday experiences i’m using

this knowledge of stress

and attention to improve my multitasking

i feel i’m on a journey

with no end because there is always

something else to learn

usually these talks end with a

conclusion but i’m speaking to you today

from the middle of my journey

so think of this as a story so far i’ll

keep learning new things every day and

try to combine them

into a bigger picture i hope you’ll all

do the same

happy learning everyone