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Can you learn new things? Can you
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unlearn certain patterns? Can you
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overcome traumas at any age? The answer
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is absolutely categorically yes. How?
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Well, it's very clear that as a child
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until about age 25 more or less, just
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passive experience will shape the brain
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for better or worse. After about age 25,
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and again, these are not strict cut
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offs. We can change our brain but what's
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required is a marketked shift in the
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neurochemical environment under which
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something happens. So, one of the
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reasons why any traumatic event will
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forever be remembered, although by the
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way you can remove some of the emotional
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load of that trauma does not have to be
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traumatic forever, is because when we
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see or experience something very intense
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of a fearful nature, there is the
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release of certain what we call neurom
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modulators, things like epinephrine,
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adrenaline, and other neurom modulators
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that cause a state shift in our body and
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brain. And the nervous system recognizes
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this as unusual and as a consequence in
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the subsequent days there's reordering
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of the connections so that the brain can
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prepare for that event should it happen
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again. This is why we have what's called
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one trial learning. You go to a certain
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location something terrible happens
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there. You will forever associate that
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location with something terrible. But
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there are tools therapy and other tools
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that can allow the emotional load to be
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removed from that so that you could go
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to that location and feel calm. no fear
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whatsoever. The good news is you can
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also learn anything you want to learn
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provided there's a shift in this
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neurochemical environment. This is why
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when we are very interested and focused
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on something, two of the main
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requirements for neuroplasticity. We
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have to be alert and we have to be
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focused. We can't learn passively as
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adults. We can't just play a lecture
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about AI and large language models or
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neuroscience in the room and then it
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just the knowledge doesn't just sink in
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by osmosis. But if we pay attention and
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we're alert when we pay attention,
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there's a shift in the neurochemicals
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associated with that attention. What we
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call the catakolamines. It's three
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molecules, dopamine, epinephrine, and
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norepinephrine. All which cause an
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increase in alertness. All which cause
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an increase in focus. A tightening of
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our visual field and our auditory field.
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So like cones of attention is one way to
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think about it. And then it sets in
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motion a bunch of biological processes
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such that if we get adequate sleep that
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night, maybe the next night as well,
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there's reordering of neural connection
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so that that knowledge, that new
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experience is consolidated in your
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brain. You are forever changed as a
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consequence of that experience.