The Brain “cleans Up ” Extra, Useless Information

The brain wipes out what has already been learned to learn something new, cleans up useless information to make room for the useful and meaningful. As strange as it may seem, our brains also do precise recycling work while we sleep or meditate. They cleanse themselves, weeding out “weeds” in order to create stronger neural connections, new ideas, and much more useful, valuable doctrines.

In his puzzle The Red Letters, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote how surprised John Watson was when he noticed another new ability with his strange roommate. Sherlock Holmes did not know that the Earth revolved around the Sun. But this famous detective had an excellent explanation for why he had chosen to forget that and many other facts.

The human brain – Holmes explained – is like a small empty palace that you can decorate the way you want. Stupid people collect there beautiful, shiny objects that can be found here and there. They do not specify which ones are really necessary. Gradually, there is no more space in their brains for useful information. A skilled artisan, on the other hand, is very careful about what he puts in the palace of his brain. He only lets in the tools he needs to do his job.

Almost unknowingly, Conan Doyle taught us the basic principle of the economics of this internal “gardening”. In it, the brain decides what synaptic connections they feed and which they destroy, and they do it according to our lifestyle, interests, experiences, and learning.

Neurologists often say that we have a metaphorical “removal button” for the things we don’t need. This piece saves space,  it gets rid of unnecessary information so we can build new, stronger neural connections that we can use to reinforce more relevant information for us. It is a process that we can actually control. Let’s see how.

Learning also involves “destruction”

Many of us still have the classic notion that the more synapse connections there are in our brains, the better. We think that’s the way we learn new things and adopt new abilities, skills and knowledge. But Sherlock Holmes’ theory actually has a scientific basis. The brain is not a palace full of unrelated things that we collect randomly and obsessively.

The brain is a sophisticated organ that likes to spare and specialize depending on its wearer. Let’s look at one example. You are determined to learn to play the piano. You are very excited about it and attend piano lessons once a week. In this case, the effect on the brain is minimal. But if you get serious about playing and practicing every day, amazing things happen.

One of these things is the so-called “synapse pruning,” in which the brain, in order to create new synapses and neural pathways to learn to play, first removes old, useless neural connections, useless information. It needs space and it has to build new routes, new bridges and it has to figure out “wires” to fit new things in there.

To make this easier to understand, imagine your brain as a garden where synaptic connections grow instead of flowers. They create pathways between neurons through which brain neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin pass. For these structures to flourish, we need to weed out the weeds from there. We have to rake and clean out old leaves to make room. This task is performed by “microglia cells,” incredible units that we can thank for our ability to learn new things. Pretty amazing!

Sleep and meditation remove unnecessary information from the brain

We already know that in many cases our ability to learn transcends our own biology. In order for the new information to remain in our memory, we must sleep. Neurologists often say that a brain with sleep deprivation is like a thick forest where it cannot move. It is chaotic, dark, suffocating and invaded by vegetation.

To open the routes and free up space, we need a deep, restful sleep. At that time, the glyphal system begins to function. The purpose of this system is to remove waste products and any dead cells left over from synapse pruning.

We’re talking about a night’s sleep, but here it should be pointed out that even short, 15-minute naps in the middle of the day or 20 minutes of deep meditation are also helpful in making room for new nerve connections.

Another important thing that happens, as neuropsychologists explain, is that sometimes simply stopping concentration allows the synapse to be “deactivated”. It’s like pressing the delete button.

This is a fascinating phenomenon that deserves much more research…