Sublime

Connections between neurons became modifiable. A neuron could send a signal or not send a signal, depending on what had happened recently. Behavior could now be modified within the life of an organism.

Myelinization “wires” the quality of our movement, thought, and practice.

Scientists have known for decades that the brain relegates more habitual jobs (like checking breathing and heart rate) to less thoughtful, more automatic, less energy-draining parts of the nervous system.

As habits are created, the level of activity in the brain decreases. You learn to lock in on the cues that predict success and tune out everything else.

If a blind person passed her finger repeatedly over the bumps of Braille, but had no motivation to learn it, no rewiring would occur, because the right neuromodulators would not be present. Similarly, if adding a new telelimb to your body has relevance to you, your body will learn it—just as Faith the dog mastered a unique body plan.

Habitus is like muscle memory.

On the other hand, for every pattern where one neuron is active and the other is inactive, the connection is weakened.

Gilbert Gottlieb, an eminent neuroscientist, put it, not only do genes and environment cooperate as we develop, but genes require input from the environment to work properly.

In other words, people living in the real world are embedded in social networks that incur obligations that have long-term consequences.