Neuroplasticity in Adults: What Actually Changes

Neuroplasticity is real, widely misused in marketing, and considerably more specific than the popular version.

What it means

Plasticity covers several distinct processes: synaptic strengthening and weakening through long-term potentiation and depression, structural changes including dendritic spine formation and pruning, changes in myelination affecting conduction speed, and cortical map reorganisation in response to changed input or use. These occur throughout life, though the magnitude and the mechanisms shift with age. It is not a single switch that can be turned on.

The neurogenesis question

Whether new neurons are generated in the adult human hippocampus remains genuinely contested. Animal evidence for adult hippocampal neurogenesis is strong. Human evidence is conflicting, with some studies reporting substantial ongoing neurogenesis and others finding little or none in adults, and the disagreement partly reflects methodological differences in tissue handling. Popular accounts asserting it confidently, in either direction, are ahead of the evidence.

What drives plastic change

Attended, effortful practice at the edge of current ability is the consistent theme - passive exposure produces far less change than active engagement. Novelty and challenge matter. Sleep is when much consolidation of the day's changes occurs. Aerobic exercise is associated with hippocampal changes in intervention studies. What does not appear to drive meaningful change is generic brain training, which has repeatedly failed to demonstrate transfer beyond the specific trained tasks.

If you are considering Cognizil

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