HOW WE LEARN
Forget artificial intelligence ,the human brainis theoriginal neural network
Words by Laura Mears
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DID YOU KNOW? Changing the way you develop a new skill makes you learn faster than repeating the same action
The brain is a collection of an estimated 86 billion neurons, connected together in a communications network more complex than the internet. Neurons pass messages like telephone wires, shooting electrical impulses at speeds of up to 180 miles per hour. They exchange signals using packets of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which can either tell the next neuron to pass the message along or to stay quiet. The connections between neurons are the basis of memory, and making them is how we learn.
The theory of human learning is founded on the idea that one brain cell can’t learn on its own – it’s the connections between brain cells that make learning possible. In the late 1940s, psychologist Donald Hebb explained that “nerves that fire together wire together”. This essentially means that when brain cells are repeatedly activated at the same time, they become physically and chemically linked.