Learning New Skills

Learning complex skills increases the brain’s “white matter”,

These are the bundles of long nerve fibres that connect different parts of the brain together (neural pathways), improving brain function.

Think of it like upgrading 56k dial-up internet to the broadband internet of today - faster and more efficient bandwidth.

A study from the University of Oxford used juggling as an example of this. 

A group of young healthy adults, none of whom could juggle, was divided into two groups each of 24 people.

One of the groups was given weekly training sessions in juggling for six weeks and asked to practice 30 minutes every day. 

Before and after this training period, the researchers scanned the brains of the jugglers along with the non-jugglers, using a technique called diffusion tensor imaging that reveals the structure of white matter.

They found that there was no change in the brains of the non-jugglers, but the jugglers grew more white matter in a part of the parietal lobe – an area involved in connecting what we see to how we move!

Most importantly: The same transformation was seen in all the jugglers, regardless of how well they could perform.

Here's the key point: this suggests that it’s the learning process itself that is important for brain development, not how good you are.

It's not about the juggling itself, it's about any skill that has a layer of complexity to it.

Keep learning, practising and playing!

Source: http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2009-10-12-juggling-enhances-connections-brain