Reviewed Date: February 1st, 2022
Contrary to what we believe, babies don’t step into the world with a blank slate. Their brain circuits are well-organized and give them strong intuitions in many areas, like identifying objects and people, sensing time and space around them, and also numbers. But babies need nurturing to master these abilities.
We all know that humans’ brains have plasticity. In other words, neurons don’t run out after a certain age. We can learn lifelong if we are interested. But how does it happen exactly? It turns out we have a hypothesis that could answer this question.
Neuronal Recycling Hypothesis: to educate oneself is to recycle one’s existing brain circuits. To put it more simply, any kind of learning happens by modification of pre-established brain circuits, which are organized at birth but capable of changing. But there is a catch.
Let’s say we invent cultural objects like language, which must find its neuronal niche, a set of circuits whose function is similar to a new cultural role but also flexible enough to be converted into a new use. This is how we learn.
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