The term neuroplasticity usually refers to several characteristics of the brain. One of these is that the connections between nerve cells in the brain are constantly adapting to activity – also in adult brains.13 The brain is continuously re-structuring itself according to experience, as well as its own activity.
At the level of individual neurons, neuroplasticity goes like this: “If the axon of cell A is sufficiently close to exciting cell B and fires this cell repeatedly and consistently, a growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells so that the efficiency with which cell A excites cell B is increased”. From this rather complex postulate, the Hebbian learning rule was formed: Neurons that fire together, wire together’.
Neurons that are activated together increasingly connect. The reverse also applies: Neurons, which are decreasingly activated together eliminate their connections. This is called activity-dependent adaptation. Neuronal activity is partly determined by human actions: Different actions and states of consciousness cause different activity patterns. Thus, the human being has partial influence over his neuronal activity, and therefore also on how the connections in the brain adapt.
Furthermore, the more often a certain activity pattern is evoked, the stronger the neuronal connections characterizing that state become. Put simply: A certain state of consciousness, if it occurs repeatedly, is increasingly anchored in the brain. Does this learning effect perhaps have benefits for dealing with the human condition?