The Brain Set Free
Lifting neural constraints could turn back time, making way for youthful flexibility
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/342559/title/The_Brain_Set_Free
It is interesting to me that it might be practical to ‘soften’ the brain a bit to allow for learning complex new subject such as languages. I suspect that this ‘hardening’ process would be a survival characteristic as you need maximal decision making capability when a predator is striking and any sort of fuzzy thinking at that point would be highly counter productive. However, that was then, this is now, and I can see a huge value in allowing the hardened brains of adults to be softened enough to pick up new information (and I am not just talking about the Tea Party ;-)). In particular, given our much longer (on average) lives and our currently rapidly changing society (prior to a century or so ago, little was expected to change in the average lifetime), it might be a huge value to society to allow people in their more mature years to more easily grasp new knowledge. Brain retraining might become something routine, like an oil change for your car.
I have tried to learn a couple of languages (Mandarin and Tagalog most recently, Latin and French whilst in high school) and find/found it very difficult. I can memorize words and some phrases, but find that I am nearly incapable without context. I bet if I could ‘soften’ my brain for a while I might be able to easily become fluent, but as things stand now I doubt I will ever do much.
