INSTRUCTION: Read the following text to answer the question.
Neuroplasticity: How the brain changes with learning
You cannot learn something without storing it in some form
of memory for future use. From neuroscience, we know that
memories are encoded by physical changes in the brain.
In other words, your brain changes physically whenever
you learn anything, and your brain continues to be moulded
by experience and learning throughout your life.
Executive summary
• Your brain is never fixed but continues to change
with learning and experience throughout your life.
• Most learning in the brain involves rewiring or
making and strengthening connections between
neurons, the cells of your brain most crucial
for learning.
• In most regions of the brain, the only neurons you
will have throughout all of your life are already
present at birth. Your brain does continue to
grow new neurons in at least one very small but
potentially important area for learning, but this
is very new research and the role of these new
neurons for learning is not yet known.
• Neuroplasticity is important for all learning –
much of the neuroscience research on
neuroplasticity is related to how the brain recovers
from injury or damage – but some of the same
principles apply to how the brain changes with
learning throughout all of life.
Learning and memory and changes in the brain
Let us start with a simple logical argument, to dispel myths
and show that logically, of course, your brain is changing
with learning:
Learning and memory are necessarily closely linked.
You cannot learn something without storing it in some form
of memory for use in the future, either for recall as new
knowledge or improvement in skills. From neuroscience,
we know that memories are encoded by physical changes
in the brain (although we still debate exactly what it is that
changes and how). Your brain therefore changes physically
whenever anything is learnt, and so your experiences and
learning throughout all of life change and mould your brain.
There is a common brain myth or popular perception
that the brain becomes fully developed sometime in early
childhood, implying that nothing further changes, and that
further changes in the brain with development in childhood
and adolescence are somehow biologically determined,
leading to a fully developed state at adulthood.
In reality, the way your brain develops is determined both
by your genetics and by your learning and experiences.
Biological does not mean predetermined. Your brain
is shaped by your experiences and is never fixed but
continues to change along with learning across the lifespan.
Available at: https://solportal.ibe-unesco.org/articles/neuroplasticityhow-the-brain-changes-with-learning/. Accessed on: March 1st, 2025.
What is the relationship between learning and memory,
as described in the text?
