58 - The Neuroscience of Learning

Halo Neuroscience

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Whether you're perfecting your free throw or picking up a new language, you need to form new pathways in your brain in order to learn anything. The scientific term for this process is called plasticity: your brain’s ability to create and strengthen connections between neurons.

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what's going on in the brain when you

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learn in order to learn anything whether

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it's math a foreign language guitar or

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how to dribble a basketball you need to

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create and strengthen pathways in your

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brain think about shooting a free throw

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know that feeling when you've got it

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down and don't even have to think about

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it that's muscle memory

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here's the thing muscle memory lives in

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the brain not the muscles your brain

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controls everything your muscles do and

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it does this by activating specific

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neural pathways for each and every

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movement these are functional pathways

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neurons working together to achieve a

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goal say you're learning how to shoot a

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free-throw

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if it's your first time doing it you

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don't yet have a pathway for that

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movement in your brain you need to

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create it let's use an analogy but look

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at what's happening in the brain during

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this time when you're first learning

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your brain is like a forest full of

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trees and dense foliage with no clear

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pathway between point a and point B as

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you learn the mechanics of shooting a

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free throw you create a trail through

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the forest now you can shoot the free

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throw because you've created that

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pathway in your brain but you probably

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don't make many shots because it's so

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new the pathway isn't very clear yet in

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order to improve your free-throw you

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need to refine and strengthen the

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free-throw pathway in your brain the way

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you do that is through practice practice

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gradually widens the trail through the

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trees turning it into a dirt road

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between a and B you're starting to get

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pretty good now you're making more free

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throws than not you don't have to think

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about the mechanics as much that's

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because the pathway gets stronger after

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each practice rapid and you've done a

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lot of reps with even more practice that

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dirt road turns into a paved road

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connecting a and B allowing information

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to be transmitted at a faster rate now

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you're a 70% free-throw shooter and when

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you step up to the line you don't even

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have to think about it

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eventually with enough practice what

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started as a trail has become a

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full-blown highway now you're a master

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draining almost every free-throw and the

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movement is completely second nature

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scientists call this plasticity and it's

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your brain's innate ability to create

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and strengthen connections between

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neurons these connections are the paths

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through the forest

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hallo sport optimizes this process by

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temporarily increasing plasticity in the

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part of your brain that controls

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movement so that your brain can create

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and strengthen these pathways faster

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than you would otherwise

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we call this hyper plasticity when you

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practice or train in the state you're

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able to write muscle memory more

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effectively allowing you to get that

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much more out of your practice in terms

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of our analogy halo Sport helps you

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build super highways of muscle memory at

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an accelerated rate it's not magic it's

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neuroscience

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