New research detects brain cell that improves learning
eurekalert.org
eurekalert.org
Seems it's the opposite - these brain cells actually impair learning when they're active.
Way more fun. Instead of improving the cells it could be that we will impair them in some way to improve our learning ability.
I see some similarities with autistic people. Usually, they're impaired and/or had brain damages in the past. This brain damage can be considered one of the reasons why some autistic people - aspergers - are able to learn much faster than others (one of the reasons is the restructuring of neurons after the accident which leads to better learning ability).
Impairing though? We can do that.
If I could flip a switch to put myself in "Learning Mode" on the fly, that would be amazing.
I wonder if we can hack this by isolating what the OLMa2 cells do (which appears to be tied to anxiety) and using some kind of mindfulness technique to self impair that part of the brain, the same way we can attempt to turn off parts of our brain in meditation.
If the function of the OLMa2 cells are anxiety, my experience has been that when I am in an anxious state, I don't learn very well - could it be as simple as relax and then learn?
Wondering if anyone can add insight to this?
You definitely pay a price for a certain amount of learning ability - see people like Kim Peek ("rain man") and others. The possible reason gets explained by Jordan Peterson (essentially, autistic people lack the ability for certain abstraction in thinking): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxNg0xcadsM