You can’t teach an old dog new tricks is a common phrase.
It means it is challenging if not impossible to teach a person something new, usually because that person has been doing it a certain way for so long that they’re stubborn to learn how to do it differently.
But we know a lot of old sayings are wrong – this one included.
Neuroscience through studies discovered that the human brain has the ability to modify and change itself according to experience or environment.
This phenomenon is known as neuroplasticity. Neuro means neuron or nerve cells in our brain or nervous system. Plastic means changeable or modifiable. It means “that we see with our brain, not with our eyes”.
Now we know that we are not at the mercy of the genetically predetermined brain make-up, we can alter our brain structure and function by our positive and optimistic thinking.
Previously it was thought that the brain was fixed and hard-wired and that the teen years and mid-20 were the final stages of brain development.
New research in the field of neuroscience shows the brain is malleable and is plastic in nature.
If it could be rewired according to our behaviour towards our environment, then we can adapt and make new adaptive changes in our brain by adjusting ourselves in better environments and social situations. By learning new skills, we make new connections in our memories and new ways of doing things.
Foods such as blueberries, green tea, dark chocolate, vegetables, fish, fruits and nuts, enhances the building up of new neural connections in the brain, making it flourish.
With the discovery of neuroplasticity, we can now understand that the brain is capable of more flexibility and we must reject the notion that you can’t teach old dogs new tricks.
