This resonates with me as someone going back to get an MD. I’m early thirties and a new father. Working through undergrad science classes is kicking my ass, so I’m really impressed that this guy’s brain was plastic enough to handle the rigors of theoretical physics. Inspirational on many levels!
That's because brain/synaptic plasticity in relation to learning was made up on the spot and simply repeated ever since. It's just been a convenient shared crutch to not learn new concepts after a certain age because the incentives are not strong enough for most people.
Is this true? I would love to read further on this. For one reason or another, I am experiencing some concern lately about my waning ability to learn new concepts as I age, or at least my perception of it. I would be chuffed to learn that it was all just in my head (so to speak).
The only thing we do know is that there is a shared experience that seems to make learning new concepts difficult as we get older. We also have plenty of examples of people thriving when placed amongst people that prioritize learning those concepts and have the same lack of encumbrances as those other people. This points to willingness and lifestyle being the primary limiting factors over mental ability.
The plasticity concept has only been extrapolated to learning ability but is as well studied as phrenology. It still needs studies to both prove and disprove it in relation to learning ability. People have shared experiences about supernatural deities, the similarity being that the prevalence of an experience doesnt provide answers about the experience.
Additionally, and apologies for not linking the study as I simply can't find it anywhere but remember it in brief, if older people are exposed to younger people on a more regular basis it was found that their capacity for learning new things was substantially higher.
Of course the major questions from this were, 1. Are older people with the capacity to learn more interested in spending time with younger people, and 2. Are younger people more likely to distance themselves from older people without the capacity to learn. Both are probably true, but it would be interesting to see how much these factors skew the results.
This was of course also done in the West, where older parents live separately to their children on average. It would be interesting to see whether, if this study was done across multiple nations, the result continues to ring true.
