Why is it hard to teach an old brain new tricks?

Is it always harder to teach an old dog new tricks? Why is an older person slower to learn a new language but able to learn new faces easily? Why does Arnold Schwartzenegger have an accent but Mila Kunis doesn’t, even though neither spoke English as a child? Why is there a correlation between how tall a person is and how much salary they’re likely to earn? What would it mean to say that you are born as many people but die as a single one? This week’s episode dives into surprises about brain plasticity and why your flexibility changes throughout your lifetime.

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More Information:

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Smirnakis SM, Brewer AA, Schmid MC, Tolias AS, Schüz A, Augath M, Inhoffen W, Wandell BA, Logothetis NK. (2005). Lack of long-term cortical reorganization after macaque retinal lesions. Nature. May 19;435(7040):300-7.

Snowdon DA. (2003). Healthy aging and dementia: findings from the Nun Study. Annals of internal medicine. Sep 2;139(5_Part_2):450-4.

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