The Neuroscience of Wealthy Affiliate

We live in an age where the understanding of how the brain functions and changes is coming of age. When I was in medical school in the 1970's the lecture on the human cortex of the brain (the outer surface where cognition is thought to occur) was 45 minutes long. It was the last lecture in Neuroanatomy and I had waited all semester to hear it. I remember being so disappointed.

The understanding of the anatomy and physiology of the brain in the 1970's was still very limited. Until that time, research and study of the brain was mostly done after the death of a person. Human brain function in the living was inferential. We gleaned how things worked based on how a person changed when their brain had been injured.

Then things changed...first there was CT scanning, a few years later MRI scanning, then PET brain scanning, and now functional MRI scanning. These advances allowed us to finally be able to study the human brain in the living. The Neuroscience revolution had begun.

This leads me to be able to explain what is happening to your brain as you go through the training with Wealthy Affiliate. You see, as you learn you are actually changing the structure and function of your brain. The brain, even the adult brain, never stops changing throughout life. The technical term for this is called neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is the change that occurs in the nervous system in response to stimuli both internal and external. For instance, if you are learning to play the piano your brain will actually change the structure and function of the areas tasked for this in your brain. This happens not only by physically playing the piano but can also be accomplished by visualizing playing the piano. The brain responds to both the physical and the imaginary in similar ways.

To make permanent changes via neuroplasticity takes time. It takes practice to induce these changes. On average, it takes 3 - 4 weeks to be able to begin to measure the changes to the brain through neuroplasticity.

So how does this relate to WA? You may have noticed that understanding the training is difficult at first. In your first several weeks you may be doing the training and not have any real comprehension of the principles. Don't worry...neuroplasticity will eventually "kick in."

The first 4 weeks will be the time when your brain is first adjusting to the new connections that will be made with the WA training. Furthermore, the neuroplastic changes will not occur all at once. So even after your first 4 weeks in WA you will find certain concepts more difficult than others...it is expected.

In the WA training you are changing the very way your brain networks information. The neuroscience term for this is called your connectome. The connectome is unique for every human being on earth...even identical twins. Your connectome is the collective expression of all the stimuli you have ever experienced. It is the coded structure of your brain.

So give yourself plenty of time to neuroplastically change in WA. The more you practice and implement the information from the training the faster your connectome will change. But remember, we are talking weeks and months not seconds and minutes of training.

Your brain has nearly 100 billion neurons. It is estimated that each neuron has thousands of connections. The connections also vary in their structure and function. This makes for an incalculable number of combinations of connections.

This makes you very unique...and so will be the neuroplastic changes that result from the training at WA. Although there are guiding principles in WA, the effect these principles will have on your connectome will be unique to you.

Inventory your progress every 4 weeks...you will be able to see how you have changed via the WA training. Afterall, it's just "simple" neuroplasticity:)

Regards,

Jeff