00:00:00
Can you learn new things? Can you
00:00:02
unlearn certain patterns? Can you
00:00:03
overcome traumas at any age? The answer
00:00:06
is absolutely categorically yes. How?
00:00:10
Well, it's very clear that as a child
00:00:12
until about age 25 more or less, just
00:00:15
passive experience will shape the brain
00:00:17
for better or worse. After about age 25,
00:00:20
and again, these are not strict cut
00:00:22
offs. We can change our brain but what's
00:00:24
required is a marketked shift in the
00:00:26
neurochemical environment under which
00:00:28
something happens. So, one of the
00:00:30
reasons why any traumatic event will
00:00:33
forever be remembered, although by the
00:00:35
way you can remove some of the emotional
00:00:37
load of that trauma does not have to be
00:00:39
traumatic forever, is because when we
00:00:42
see or experience something very intense
00:00:45
of a fearful nature, there is the
00:00:47
release of certain what we call neurom
00:00:50
modulators, things like epinephrine,
00:00:51
adrenaline, and other neurom modulators
00:00:54
that cause a state shift in our body and
00:00:57
brain. And the nervous system recognizes
00:01:00
this as unusual and as a consequence in
00:01:02
the subsequent days there's reordering
00:01:04
of the connections so that the brain can
00:01:06
prepare for that event should it happen
00:01:08
again. This is why we have what's called
00:01:10
one trial learning. You go to a certain
00:01:12
location something terrible happens
00:01:14
there. You will forever associate that
00:01:16
location with something terrible. But
00:01:18
there are tools therapy and other tools
00:01:21
that can allow the emotional load to be
00:01:24
removed from that so that you could go
00:01:25
to that location and feel calm. no fear
00:01:28
whatsoever. The good news is you can
00:01:30
also learn anything you want to learn
00:01:32
provided there's a shift in this
00:01:33
neurochemical environment. This is why
00:01:35
when we are very interested and focused
00:01:37
on something, two of the main
00:01:39
requirements for neuroplasticity. We
00:01:41
have to be alert and we have to be
00:01:42
focused. We can't learn passively as
00:01:45
adults. We can't just play a lecture
00:01:47
about AI and large language models or
00:01:50
neuroscience in the room and then it
00:01:51
just the knowledge doesn't just sink in
00:01:53
by osmosis. But if we pay attention and
00:01:55
we're alert when we pay attention,
00:01:57
there's a shift in the neurochemicals
00:01:59
associated with that attention. What we
00:02:00
call the catakolamines. It's three
00:02:03
molecules, dopamine, epinephrine, and
00:02:05
norepinephrine. All which cause an
00:02:07
increase in alertness. All which cause
00:02:08
an increase in focus. A tightening of
00:02:10
our visual field and our auditory field.
00:02:12
So like cones of attention is one way to
00:02:14
think about it. And then it sets in
00:02:16
motion a bunch of biological processes
00:02:18
such that if we get adequate sleep that
00:02:20
night, maybe the next night as well,
00:02:22
there's reordering of neural connection
00:02:24
so that that knowledge, that new
00:02:26
experience is consolidated in your
00:02:28
brain. You are forever changed as a
00:02:31
consequence of that experience.
