TW: This pill could give your brain the learning powers of a 7-year-old

[JMS]

Unfortunately... Christmas is over. 

 

 

This pill could give your brain the learning powers of a 7-year-old

Y

our brain is like a sponge when it is young. Studies have shown that kids pick up up foreign languages faster than adults (though that is up for debate), and that some skills — like "perfect pitch," which allows gifted vocalists to sing notes with unerring precision — are best nurtured from a young age.

But what if it were possible for the adult mind to revert back to a more porous state of learning?

That's the subject of an investigation by Takao Hensch, a professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, who is studying a drug that may make it dramatically easier for grown-ups to absorb new skills and information — almost as if they were seven years old or younger.

The key ingredient here is valproic acid. Normally, it's used to treat neurological disorders like seizures and epilepsy, and various other mood disorders. But Hensch claims it may help restore plasticity in the adult brain.

In a new experiment, Hensch used valproic acid to bestow the gift of perfect pitch to a group of adult males between the ages of 18 to 27. Here's now NPR describes it:

http://theweek.com/article/index/254721/this-pill-could-give-your-brain-the-learning-powers-of-a-7-year-old

[Riggo-toni]

I'd take a pill if it could give me perfect pitch in 2 weeks.

[alexey]

For the record:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/iage/201304/brain-plasticity-in-older-adults

Brain Plasticity in Older Adults

Our brains can continue to grow at any age. One of the startling revelations of the 21st century is the improvement in our knowledge of nerve cell development among older adults. Known as neurogenesis or brain plasticity, this new knowledge is showing us that the brain has the ability to CHANGE throughout life by forming new connections between brain cells, and to alter function. For a long time, it was assumed that as we become older, the connections in the brain became fixed, and then it was just a matter of time that we started “losing” brain cells. However this assumption is being aggressively challenged by recent studies showing that the brain never stops changing.

...

[zoony]

I'd prefer the metabolism of a 7 year old

[Riggo-toni]

If you root for the Cowboys, you can have the intellect of a 7 year old.

[Stugein]

I wonder if such a drug would also make the brain more susceptible to trauma.  As in how abuse, bullying, etc. can cause long term psychological damage to a little kid.  Like, if you treat an adult on this drug badly will it affect them on a deeper, more long term level than an adult with a mature, unaltered brain who would more easily get over such treatment.

[JMS]

I wonder if such a drug would also make the brain more susceptible to trauma.  As in how abuse, bullying, etc. can cause long term psychological damage to a little kid.  Like, if you treat an adult on this drug badly will it affect them on a deeper, more long term level than an adult with a mature, unaltered brain who would more easily get over such treatment.

 

That's an interesting thought..    Unintended concequences of taking this medicine for the above purpose is likely entirely unknown..

 

Perhaps Simon Cowell could be even more damaging to psychis of  contestants on XFactor?  in future years..  

[The 12th Commandment]

I'd like to see what this drug can do for people that have lost some brain function.  Regrowing axons happens in adults, I know, but it's a slow process.  Lot's of potential here but like other have mentioned the unintended consequences might be a Pandora's box.  I'll be keeping my eye on this class of drug.

[Mad Mike]

I would start taking this tomorrow if I could. 

[roanoker]

I hope it would give me the learning power of an 8 year old. At 7, I failed the second grade.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

That's pretty fascinating. Just a couple steps away from:

 

[Bang]

friggin' drug addicts.

Running around like a bunch of second graders.

~Bang

[Major Harris]

Es would need a boat load of this.

[gbear]

So I was thinking about this last night.  With MS, I deal with cognitive issues daily, and it sure would be nice to get some back.  However, as I thought more on the issue, I suspect a drug which allowed for greater plasticity would disappoint many.  I suspect a lot of what keeps us from learning new things is our acceptance of what we already "know."

 

When we say kids are like sponges, I think of how many "why" questions I answer daily from my 7 and 8 year old kids.  They are trying to model the world in their minds to gain the ability to predict and impact what is going on around them.  As we get older, we think we know, and we stop asking.  We develop our lives around the world as we perceive it. 

 

The ability for our minds to take in new information is only one part of the equation.  We have to be actively trying to learn.  I think about the book Crashing Through,   In the book, the author tells how most blind people who suddenly get there sight back at an older age are depressed.  The world of sight is not as they thought, and their ability to use their sight to help them is less than they predicted.  It is only when he goes back to using his cane as if blind that the author is able to rejoin society at large.  Sight had to be relegated to additional information, not a primary source. 

 

Would a more nimble brain be a more open brain, questioning everything, or would it be little more than a faster,bigger hard drive for our existing thought patterns?  For which would you hope?  I note with sight the latter approach was the author's only way to prevent the common side effect of depression.  New unknowns are only rarely as we think and hope they will be.