November 28, 2025 • 15 mins
Trigger adult neuroplasticity with error signals, urgency, dopamine, state control, and balance-based movement to accelerate learning.
In this episode, we present a clear, actionable framework for activating adult neuroplasticity, allowing you to learn faster without burnout or endless repetition. We begin by reframing errors as the core signal for change, explaining how acetylcholine, epinephrine, and dopamine work together to mark mistakes, create urgency, and reinforce progress.
You’ll learn the difference between juvenile plasticity, with its high tolerance for errors, and adult plasticity, which sharpens around targeted mistakes. We contrast slow, incremental shifts with high contingency learning, where precision errors create powerful windows for rewiring.
The episode outlines how to time training sessions around the critical error window, how to reframe “failure” to trigger dopamine, and how to manage limbic friction using state-control tools that maintain focus without exhausting your system. We also explain how the vestibular system functions as a plasticity amplifier—one of the most overlooked performance tools.
We end with a simple, four-step formula for rapid learning that blends intentional errors, urgency, balance challenges, and state regulation.
Listener Takeaways:
• Why errors are essential for adult learning
• How acetylcholine, epinephrine & dopamine shape plasticity
• Timing and framing strategies for rapid skill acquisition
• Tools to manage limbic friction and maintain focus
• How vestibular activation accelerates rewiring
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This podcast is created by Ai for educational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional medical or health advice. Please talk to your healthcare team for medical advice.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the deep dive.
Our mission today is prettystraightforward.
We want to give you a fast,actionable shortcut to mastering
the science of learning.
So if you're looking for waysto, you know, really ingest and
hold on to knowledge faster,maybe for a new job, a new
skill, this deep dive is foryou.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
And at the very core of all of this, of all learning,
is your nervous system.
Right.
We're talking about the brain,the spinal cord, and all of the
connections that go out throughyour entire body.
It regulates everything youthink, feel, and well,
everything you know.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
And the really amazing thing about our biology,
the thing that separates us fromso many other species, is that
we can do this deliberately.
It's self-directedneuroplasticity.
Exactly.
We can literally change thecircuitry of how we see and
interact with the world.
SPEAKER_01 (00:47):
And today we're really going to focus on a maybe
a surprising path to engagingthat plasticity.
We're talking about specificphysical actions, things like
motor commands, movement, andbalance.
These act as incredible uhgateways or portals into
changing your nervous system.
And the crucial thing is thesephysical portals work even if
(01:08):
your goal is totally cognitive.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Like learning a language or math.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Yes.
Getting better at math,internalizing data, anything.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15):
What stands out right away in the research,
though, is that the wholefoundation for this is it's
completely counterintuitive.
You don't learn when things areeasy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:24):
No, not at all.
Plasticity absolutely requiresthe creation of mismatches, of
errors.
Your brain has to get thispowerful signal that says, okay,
what I'm meant to do and whatactually happened are totally
out of sync.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
And that gap, that's the trigger.
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
That gap is the only thing that cues the system to
change.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Aaron Powell So let's start with where those
errors actually land.
We're talking about our internalmap of the world, what the
science calls representationalplasticity.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Right.
Think of representationalplasticity as your brain's
internal map.
It's constantly being updated.
SPEAKER_00 (01:56):
So like when I reach for a coffee cup.
SPEAKER_01 (01:58):
Exactly.
When you reach for a coffee cup,you instinctively apply the
perfect amount of force, theright trajectory.
You don't, you know, knock itover or miss.
SPEAKER_00 (02:07):
I hope not.
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
Well, that's because your sensory information, what
you see, and your motorcommands, how you move, are
perfectly aligned in your brainmaps.
SPEAKER_00 (02:16):
And you don't even notice this alignment until it
goes wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Precisely.
We take it for granted.
But the second you introduce afailure, an error where the
result doesn't match the action,that is the biological cue.
It kicks off these very distinctmechanisms designed to initiate
a change in the system.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
Aaron Ross Powell And this change isn't just like
a mental aha moment.
It's driven by a really specificand very powerful chemical
cocktail.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
That's fundamental.
Neuroplasticity isn't automatic.
I mean, it's metabolicallyexpensive for the brain.
SPEAKER_00 (02:47):
Right.
It costs energy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:48):
A lot of energy.
So it only happens when specificneural circuits are literally
marked for change byneurochemicals.
The actual physical rewiringoften happens hours later,
usually during deep sleep orrest.
Aaron Powell Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
So we need to know the recipe for this cocktail.
How do we cook it up ourselves?
What are the ingredients?
SPEAKER_01 (03:04):
The three non-negotiables are first,
acetylcholine, which is allabout intense focus.
SPEAKER_00 (03:09):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Second is epinephrine, which we associate
with alertness, but in thiscontext, it's more like
frustration.
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Got it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
And the third, dopamine, the molecule of
motivation and pursuit.
So when you intentionally makeerrors, your nervous system just
floods the relevant circuitswith epinephrine and
acetylcholine.
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
And that combination is basically screaming, this
mistake is critical.
Pay attention and get ready tochange.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Yes.
The error itself is the startbutton.
It creates a chemicalenvironment that makes the whole
system ready to change.
And that facilitates not justgetting better at piano, but
also better language processingor analytical thinking.
SPEAKER_00 (03:47):
Aaron Powell This brings us to the core challenge
for, I think, for everyonelistening, the tapering off
point.
We all know plasticity ismassive when we're kids, up
until about age 25, and thenit's just it drops off a cliff.
So adults need different toolsto get it going again.
SPEAKER_01 (04:02):
And we can see this decline so clearly in some of
the classic experiments, likethe ones from the Nudson lab
using prisms.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Okay, set this up for us.
Subjects wear these specialglasses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Aaron Ross Powell Prism glasses, yeah.
They shift your entire visualfield.
So you look straight ahead, buteverything appears, say, 15
degrees to your right, and thenyou have to reach for a target.
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
And at first, everyone misses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:21):
Everyone misses wildly.
But the young subjects, thejuveniles, they make the error,
they register that failure, andtheir motor maps just they
rapidly adjust.
Within a day, maybe two, they'rereaching for the true location,
even with the visual shift.
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
But the older subjects.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Oh, the adjustment is so much slower.
It can take weeks, and many ofthem never fully adapt.
The signal for change is stillthere.
It's still the errors, therepeated misses.
But the adult nervous systemjust doesn't have that same
robust, fast response.
It's sticky, it resists change.
SPEAKER_00 (04:56):
So that frustration we feel when we can't get
something, that's actually theneurochemical signal that change
needs to happen.
SPEAKER_01 (05:03):
Yes.
The key is to channel thatfrustration, not to run away
from it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
So you have to lean into it.
SPEAKER_01 (05:08):
Exactly.
If you meet that feeling bydrilling deeper, you are turning
on the plasticity machine.
If you walk away because itfeels bad, you're just
reinforcing the old wiring.
SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
So given that adults really struggle with these huge
sudden shifts, the researchpoints to two main paths we can
take to accelerate learning.
The first one is incremental.
SPEAKER_01 (05:28):
Right.
The adult nervous system is kindof like a stubborn spring.
It can handle small, stackederrors much better than one
giant immediate shift.
SPEAKER_00 (05:38):
And the Prism experiments showed this.
SPEAKER_01 (05:40):
They confirmed it.
If they shifted the visual fielda little bit at a time, say
seven degrees, then 14, then 28,the adults actually achieved the
full map shift successfully.
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
Wait, I have a question about that.
If we know that the big error isthe signal we need, isn't
breaking it up just avoiding thesignal?
SPEAKER_01 (05:57):
Aaron Powell That's a great question, but it's
really about tolerance.
The massive immediate errorcreates such an overwhelming
mismatch that the adult systemoften just shuts the whole
process down.
It sees it as too costly, maybetoo risky.
So small stacked errors keepthose change mechanisms open and
running without triggering, youknow, a total system freakout.
SPEAKER_00 (06:17):
So the actionable takeaway there is really clear.
Focus on shorter, intenselearning sessions.
Tackle smaller chunks ofinformation one after another.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Exactly.
Don't try to cram a wholetextbook in one night.
It's the worst thing you can doas an adult.
SPEAKER_00 (06:30):
Okay, so what's the second path?
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
The second path is the holy grail.
This is for getting thosemassive, fast shifts, getting
that juvenile level plasticityback.
And that is high contingency.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
Aaron Powell Meaning you attach a huge incentive or
maybe a penalty to the outcome.
SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
Aaron Powell Yes.
The lab found that if theyattached a serious, intense need
to the plasticity, a reallyserious contingency, the adults
would adjust just as fast as thekids.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
And the famous example is food, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:00):
The famous example is having subjects need to
achieve the plasticity to find areward, like food.
The survival imperative kicksin.
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
So that intense pressure you feel when you
absolutely have to master askill for your job, or maybe
that urgency when you'relearning language right before
you move to another country.
SPEAKER_01 (07:16):
That's what does it.
That's what accelerates thelearning curve.
SPEAKER_00 (07:18):
So it's about how badly you need it.
SPEAKER_01 (07:20):
How badly you need it or want it.
That determines the speed andthe magnitude of the change.
Passive repetition, just youknow, getting your reps in, it's
not enough.
Urgency is the turbocharger.
SPEAKER_00 (07:30):
Aaron Powell, which brings us to timing.
How long do we actually need tobe in this focused, error-making
state?
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
Aaron Powell Well, we need to time our efforts
around our natural biologicalrhythms, these ultradian cycles
that run in about 90-minuteperiods.
SPEAKER_00 (07:43):
Right.
And we've all felt this.
You sit down to work, and thefirst few minutes your mind is
just everywhere.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01 (07:49):
Totally normal.
Focus doesn't really kick inuntil, you know, around the 10
or 15 minute mark.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Aaron Powell And that optimal state lasts for
about an hour.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
Generally, yeah.
But here's the absolute crucialfinding, and it relates back to
that neurochemistry we weretalking about.
It's what we call the criticalerror window.
SPEAKER_00 (08:06):
This is where we need to be spending our time.
SPEAKER_01 (08:08):
Absolutely.
The final seven to thirtyminutes of that learning bout
are the most important.
This is the period where youshould be trying your absolute
hardest, failing over and over,feeling that frustration and
pushing through.
SPEAKER_00 (08:21):
So you have to actively seek out the errors
during that window.
SPEAKER_01 (08:24):
You must.
That sustained period ofintentional failure is what
liberates the acetylcholine andepinephrine you need for change.
SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
And once we're in that state, actively looking for
failure and frustration, we canactually we can hack the system
with that third chemical,dopamine.
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
Dopamine is what pulls us toward a goal.
It's all about motivation andpursuit.
But what's so amazing about itis that its release is highly
subjective.
It's not just for, you know,hardwired rewards like food or
shelter.
SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
We have some control over it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
A huge amount of control.
The actionable takeaway here ispsychological.
You have to learn tosubjectively attach dopamine to
the process of making errors,not just to getting the right
answer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
So you tell yourself a story about the errors.
SPEAKER_01 (09:08):
Exactly.
If you consciously tell yourselfthese failures, this struggle in
this 30-minute window, this isgood, this is what's going to
get me to my goal, you create anoutsized effect.
You're basically rewarding yourbrain for generating the
chemical cues for change.
SPEAKER_00 (09:21):
So to recap, establish a high contingency.
Find your peak mental time ofday, engage in that seven to
thirty-minute error-seekingwindow, and then tell yourself,
this failure is a win becauseit's the signal for change.
SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
That is the optimal chemical environment.
But there's a step before allthat.
Before you even start, you haveto manage your internal state.
You have to be able to accessfocus.
And that means managing what wecall limbic friction.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
Limbic friction.
I like that term.
It's that feeling, that internalstruggle, when you're either too
wired to concentrate or just tootired to even care.
SPEAKER_01 (09:56):
That's it, exactly.
It's when your autonomic nervoussystem isn't in the ideal
starting place.
If you're stressed, anxious, youcan't focus.
If you're too tired or foggy,you can't push through errors.
You need to show up to thelearning that clear, calm, and
focused.
SPEAKER_00 (10:10):
Okay, so let's get practical.
Let's say I show up to my desk,I'm ready to learn, but I'm
jittery, I'm anxious.
What are the tools to dial thatdown?
SPEAKER_01 (10:18):
You want to trigger your parasympathetic, your rest
and digest system.
One incredibly effective tool isthe physiological psi.
SPEAKER_00 (10:26):
Okay, what's that?
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
It's a double inhale through the nose, a big inhale,
and then a little quick oneright on top of it, followed by
a very long, slow exhale throughthe mouth.
SPEAKER_00 (10:35):
So two inhales, one long exhale.
SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
Right.
That double inhale pops open thelittle air sacs in your lungs,
and the long exhale offloads amaximum amount of CO2.
It rapidly calms your nervoussystem.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
It's like hitting the brakes on the system.
What's another tool if you'retoo anxious?
SPEAKER_01 (10:50):
Panoramic vision.
When you're stressed, yourvision naturally tunnels.
It literally narrows.
That increases epinephrine.
SPEAKER_00 (10:58):
The fight or flight response.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Exactly.
To reverse it, you just youdeliberately expand your field
of view.
Dilate your gaze until you cansee the walls, the ceiling, the
periphery.
It consciously tells your brainto deploy fewer alertness
chemicals.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
Okay, and what about the other side of the coin?
If I'm too tired, too foggy, andI need to ramp up my alertness.
Besides another cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (11:20):
If you need to deploy norepinephrine and really
snap into alertness, you can usesuperoxygenation breathing.
Okay.
This is just about of rapid,deliberate breathing where
you're inhaling more than you'reexhaling on average.
Those fast, deep breaths quicklyactivate your sympathetic or
your alertness system.
The point is you have to get tothe starting line in the right
(11:42):
state.
SPEAKER_00 (11:43):
So once our state is managed and we're ready to seek
out those beautiful productiveerrors, there's one more thing
we can do (11:48):
an amplifier.
The vestibular system.
This seems like the ultimateunlock.
SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
It really is.
The vestibular system is yourhardwired balance mechanism.
It's in your inner ear.
It's made of semicircular canalsand these little calcium stones
that sense gravity and motion inthree planes.
SPEAKER_00 (12:04):
Pitch, yaw, and roll.
SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
Pitch like nodding yes, yaw, like shaking your head
no, and roll tilting side toside.
It's constantly telling yourbrain where you are in space.
SPEAKER_00 (12:13):
So how does this amplify plasticity?
SPEAKER_01 (12:15):
Here's the key mechanism.
When you introduce errors inyour vestibular experience,
meaning you lose your balance oryour body have to suddenly
compensate for being off-kilter,your cerebellum, the mini brain,
immediately signals deep braincenters.
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
And what does that signal release?
SPEAKER_01 (12:32):
A simultaneous, massive burst of dopamine,
acetylcholine, andnorepinephrine, all three at
once.
Wow.
It's a core survival circuit.
It's designed to instantlyrecalibrate your motor movements
to stop you from falling andgetting injured.
And because it's such a highcontingency hardwired survival
mechanism, errors involvingbalance act as this incredible
(12:53):
amplifier on any kind oflearning.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
So if I'm struggling with a tough math problem and I
add a balance component like, Itry to solve it while standing
on one leg, I'm creating themaximum chemical environment for
encoding that information.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
You are leveraging evolution.
SPEAKER_00 (13:07):
You're basically cheating the system by
piggybacking on a survivalcircuit.
SPEAKER_01 (13:11):
It's a beautiful cheat code.
When you're struggling with aconcept, that's a cognitive
error.
If you pair that cognitive errorwith a physical balance error,
you hit the chemical releasejackpot and you turbocharge the
brain's willingness to change.
SPEAKER_00 (13:25):
This has been incredibly dense and actionable.
Let's try to consolidate thefour key ingredients we found
for accelerating adultneuroplasticity.
SPEAKER_01 (13:32):
Okay.
First, you have to manage yourautonomic arousal.
Get rid of that limbic frictionbefore you start.
SPEAKER_00 (13:38):
Right.
Using things like thephysiological side.
Second, structure your learningto engage in incremental errors.
You have to push through thatcritical seven to thirty minutes
of intentional failure.
SPEAKER_01 (13:49):
Third, establish high contingency.
You have to know why thislearning is vitally important to
you.
You have to create that urgency.
SPEAKER_00 (13:57):
And fourth, use the vestibular system.
Use balance-based movement toamplify the chemical release,
hacking a survival circuit forrapid change.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
That's the formula.
SPEAKER_00 (14:06):
And if we connect this back to the big picture,
why do adults have lessplasticity?
Maybe it's not that we can'taccess it, but maybe that we
just aren't deploying thosechemicals often enough.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
Think about the difference in movement between a
child and an adult.
A child is constantly rolling,tumbling, falling, moving in all
these different relationships togravity.
SPEAKER_00 (14:26):
Pitch, yaw, and roll or their entire world.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
And as adults, we tend to move in straight lines.
We sit, we walk, we reduce thedimensionality of our movement.
We stop generating those massivevestibular error signals.
We stop falling down.
We stop falling down, exactly.
So the provocative thought foryou to explore is this the
gateway to unlocking greaterbrain change might just be to
add more variety anddimensionality back into your
(14:52):
physical life.
Seek out those balance errors,move in new ways, and you might
just find that the gates tofaster learning swing wide open.
Welcome to the deep dive.
Our mission today is prettystraightforward.
We want to give you a fast,actionable shortcut to mastering
the science of learning.
So if you're looking for waysto, you know, really ingest and
hold on to knowledge faster,maybe for a new job, a new
skill, this deep dive is foryou.
SPEAKER_01 (00:19):
And at the very core of all of this, of all learning,
is your nervous system.
Right.
We're talking about the brain,the spinal cord, and all of the
connections that go out throughyour entire body.
It regulates everything youthink, feel, and well,
everything you know.
SPEAKER_00 (00:33):
And the really amazing thing about our biology,
the thing that separates us fromso many other species, is that
we can do this deliberately.
It's self-directedneuroplasticity.
Exactly.
We can literally change thecircuitry of how we see and
interact with the world.
SPEAKER_01 (00:47):
And today we're really going to focus on a maybe
a surprising path to engagingthat plasticity.
We're talking about specificphysical actions, things like
motor commands, movement, andbalance.
These act as incredible uhgateways or portals into
changing your nervous system.
And the crucial thing is thesephysical portals work even if
(01:08):
your goal is totally cognitive.
SPEAKER_00 (01:10):
Like learning a language or math.
SPEAKER_01 (01:12):
Yes.
Getting better at math,internalizing data, anything.
SPEAKER_00 (01:15):
What stands out right away in the research,
though, is that the wholefoundation for this is it's
completely counterintuitive.
You don't learn when things areeasy.
SPEAKER_01 (01:24):
No, not at all.
Plasticity absolutely requiresthe creation of mismatches, of
errors.
Your brain has to get thispowerful signal that says, okay,
what I'm meant to do and whatactually happened are totally
out of sync.
SPEAKER_00 (01:37):
And that gap, that's the trigger.
SPEAKER_01 (01:39):
That gap is the only thing that cues the system to
change.
SPEAKER_00 (01:42):
Aaron Powell So let's start with where those
errors actually land.
We're talking about our internalmap of the world, what the
science calls representationalplasticity.
SPEAKER_01 (01:50):
Right.
Think of representationalplasticity as your brain's
internal map.
It's constantly being updated.
SPEAKER_00 (01:56):
So like when I reach for a coffee cup.
SPEAKER_01 (01:58):
Exactly.
When you reach for a coffee cup,you instinctively apply the
perfect amount of force, theright trajectory.
You don't, you know, knock itover or miss.
SPEAKER_00 (02:07):
I hope not.
SPEAKER_01 (02:08):
Well, that's because your sensory information, what
you see, and your motorcommands, how you move, are
perfectly aligned in your brainmaps.
SPEAKER_00 (02:16):
And you don't even notice this alignment until it
goes wrong.
SPEAKER_01 (02:18):
Precisely.
We take it for granted.
But the second you introduce afailure, an error where the
result doesn't match the action,that is the biological cue.
It kicks off these very distinctmechanisms designed to initiate
a change in the system.
SPEAKER_00 (02:33):
Aaron Ross Powell And this change isn't just like
a mental aha moment.
It's driven by a really specificand very powerful chemical
cocktail.
SPEAKER_01 (02:42):
That's fundamental.
Neuroplasticity isn't automatic.
I mean, it's metabolicallyexpensive for the brain.
SPEAKER_00 (02:47):
Right.
It costs energy.
SPEAKER_01 (02:48):
A lot of energy.
So it only happens when specificneural circuits are literally
marked for change byneurochemicals.
The actual physical rewiringoften happens hours later,
usually during deep sleep orrest.
Aaron Powell Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (02:59):
So we need to know the recipe for this cocktail.
How do we cook it up ourselves?
What are the ingredients?
SPEAKER_01 (03:04):
The three non-negotiables are first,
acetylcholine, which is allabout intense focus.
SPEAKER_00 (03:09):
Okay.
SPEAKER_01 (03:10):
Second is epinephrine, which we associate
with alertness, but in thiscontext, it's more like
frustration.
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Got it.
SPEAKER_01 (03:16):
And the third, dopamine, the molecule of
motivation and pursuit.
So when you intentionally makeerrors, your nervous system just
floods the relevant circuitswith epinephrine and
acetylcholine.
SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
And that combination is basically screaming, this
mistake is critical.
Pay attention and get ready tochange.
SPEAKER_01 (03:35):
Yes.
The error itself is the startbutton.
It creates a chemicalenvironment that makes the whole
system ready to change.
And that facilitates not justgetting better at piano, but
also better language processingor analytical thinking.
SPEAKER_00 (03:47):
Aaron Powell This brings us to the core challenge
for, I think, for everyonelistening, the tapering off
point.
We all know plasticity ismassive when we're kids, up
until about age 25, and thenit's just it drops off a cliff.
So adults need different toolsto get it going again.
SPEAKER_01 (04:02):
And we can see this decline so clearly in some of
the classic experiments, likethe ones from the Nudson lab
using prisms.
SPEAKER_00 (04:07):
Okay, set this up for us.
Subjects wear these specialglasses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Aaron Ross Powell Prism glasses, yeah.
They shift your entire visualfield.
So you look straight ahead, buteverything appears, say, 15
degrees to your right, and thenyou have to reach for a target.
SPEAKER_00 (04:19):
And at first, everyone misses.
SPEAKER_01 (04:21):
Everyone misses wildly.
But the young subjects, thejuveniles, they make the error,
they register that failure, andtheir motor maps just they
rapidly adjust.
Within a day, maybe two, they'rereaching for the true location,
even with the visual shift.
SPEAKER_00 (04:37):
But the older subjects.
SPEAKER_01 (04:39):
Oh, the adjustment is so much slower.
It can take weeks, and many ofthem never fully adapt.
The signal for change is stillthere.
It's still the errors, therepeated misses.
But the adult nervous systemjust doesn't have that same
robust, fast response.
It's sticky, it resists change.
SPEAKER_00 (04:56):
So that frustration we feel when we can't get
something, that's actually theneurochemical signal that change
needs to happen.
SPEAKER_01 (05:03):
Yes.
The key is to channel thatfrustration, not to run away
from it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:06):
So you have to lean into it.
SPEAKER_01 (05:08):
Exactly.
If you meet that feeling bydrilling deeper, you are turning
on the plasticity machine.
If you walk away because itfeels bad, you're just
reinforcing the old wiring.
SPEAKER_00 (05:19):
So given that adults really struggle with these huge
sudden shifts, the researchpoints to two main paths we can
take to accelerate learning.
The first one is incremental.
SPEAKER_01 (05:28):
Right.
The adult nervous system is kindof like a stubborn spring.
It can handle small, stackederrors much better than one
giant immediate shift.
SPEAKER_00 (05:38):
And the Prism experiments showed this.
SPEAKER_01 (05:40):
They confirmed it.
If they shifted the visual fielda little bit at a time, say
seven degrees, then 14, then 28,the adults actually achieved the
full map shift successfully.
SPEAKER_00 (05:49):
Wait, I have a question about that.
If we know that the big error isthe signal we need, isn't
breaking it up just avoiding thesignal?
SPEAKER_01 (05:57):
Aaron Powell That's a great question, but it's
really about tolerance.
The massive immediate errorcreates such an overwhelming
mismatch that the adult systemoften just shuts the whole
process down.
It sees it as too costly, maybetoo risky.
So small stacked errors keepthose change mechanisms open and
running without triggering, youknow, a total system freakout.
SPEAKER_00 (06:17):
So the actionable takeaway there is really clear.
Focus on shorter, intenselearning sessions.
Tackle smaller chunks ofinformation one after another.
SPEAKER_01 (06:26):
Exactly.
Don't try to cram a wholetextbook in one night.
It's the worst thing you can doas an adult.
SPEAKER_00 (06:30):
Okay, so what's the second path?
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
The second path is the holy grail.
This is for getting thosemassive, fast shifts, getting
that juvenile level plasticityback.
And that is high contingency.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
Aaron Powell Meaning you attach a huge incentive or
maybe a penalty to the outcome.
SPEAKER_01 (06:47):
Aaron Powell Yes.
The lab found that if theyattached a serious, intense need
to the plasticity, a reallyserious contingency, the adults
would adjust just as fast as thekids.
SPEAKER_00 (06:58):
And the famous example is food, right?
SPEAKER_01 (07:00):
The famous example is having subjects need to
achieve the plasticity to find areward, like food.
The survival imperative kicksin.
SPEAKER_00 (07:07):
So that intense pressure you feel when you
absolutely have to master askill for your job, or maybe
that urgency when you'relearning language right before
you move to another country.
SPEAKER_01 (07:16):
That's what does it.
That's what accelerates thelearning curve.
SPEAKER_00 (07:18):
So it's about how badly you need it.
SPEAKER_01 (07:20):
How badly you need it or want it.
That determines the speed andthe magnitude of the change.
Passive repetition, just youknow, getting your reps in, it's
not enough.
Urgency is the turbocharger.
SPEAKER_00 (07:30):
Aaron Powell, which brings us to timing.
How long do we actually need tobe in this focused, error-making
state?
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
Aaron Powell Well, we need to time our efforts
around our natural biologicalrhythms, these ultradian cycles
that run in about 90-minuteperiods.
SPEAKER_00 (07:43):
Right.
And we've all felt this.
You sit down to work, and thefirst few minutes your mind is
just everywhere.
Trevor Burrus, Jr.
SPEAKER_01 (07:49):
Totally normal.
Focus doesn't really kick inuntil, you know, around the 10
or 15 minute mark.
SPEAKER_00 (07:54):
Aaron Powell And that optimal state lasts for
about an hour.
SPEAKER_01 (07:57):
Generally, yeah.
But here's the absolute crucialfinding, and it relates back to
that neurochemistry we weretalking about.
It's what we call the criticalerror window.
SPEAKER_00 (08:06):
This is where we need to be spending our time.
SPEAKER_01 (08:08):
Absolutely.
The final seven to thirtyminutes of that learning bout
are the most important.
This is the period where youshould be trying your absolute
hardest, failing over and over,feeling that frustration and
pushing through.
SPEAKER_00 (08:21):
So you have to actively seek out the errors
during that window.
SPEAKER_01 (08:24):
You must.
That sustained period ofintentional failure is what
liberates the acetylcholine andepinephrine you need for change.
SPEAKER_00 (08:33):
And once we're in that state, actively looking for
failure and frustration, we canactually we can hack the system
with that third chemical,dopamine.
SPEAKER_01 (08:43):
Dopamine is what pulls us toward a goal.
It's all about motivation andpursuit.
But what's so amazing about itis that its release is highly
subjective.
It's not just for, you know,hardwired rewards like food or
shelter.
SPEAKER_00 (08:55):
We have some control over it.
SPEAKER_01 (08:56):
A huge amount of control.
The actionable takeaway here ispsychological.
You have to learn tosubjectively attach dopamine to
the process of making errors,not just to getting the right
answer.
SPEAKER_00 (09:06):
So you tell yourself a story about the errors.
SPEAKER_01 (09:08):
Exactly.
If you consciously tell yourselfthese failures, this struggle in
this 30-minute window, this isgood, this is what's going to
get me to my goal, you create anoutsized effect.
You're basically rewarding yourbrain for generating the
chemical cues for change.
SPEAKER_00 (09:21):
So to recap, establish a high contingency.
Find your peak mental time ofday, engage in that seven to
thirty-minute error-seekingwindow, and then tell yourself,
this failure is a win becauseit's the signal for change.
SPEAKER_01 (09:34):
That is the optimal chemical environment.
But there's a step before allthat.
Before you even start, you haveto manage your internal state.
You have to be able to accessfocus.
And that means managing what wecall limbic friction.
SPEAKER_00 (09:48):
Limbic friction.
I like that term.
It's that feeling, that internalstruggle, when you're either too
wired to concentrate or just tootired to even care.
SPEAKER_01 (09:56):
That's it, exactly.
It's when your autonomic nervoussystem isn't in the ideal
starting place.
If you're stressed, anxious, youcan't focus.
If you're too tired or foggy,you can't push through errors.
You need to show up to thelearning that clear, calm, and
focused.
SPEAKER_00 (10:10):
Okay, so let's get practical.
Let's say I show up to my desk,I'm ready to learn, but I'm
jittery, I'm anxious.
What are the tools to dial thatdown?
SPEAKER_01 (10:18):
You want to trigger your parasympathetic, your rest
and digest system.
One incredibly effective tool isthe physiological psi.
SPEAKER_00 (10:26):
Okay, what's that?
SPEAKER_01 (10:27):
It's a double inhale through the nose, a big inhale,
and then a little quick oneright on top of it, followed by
a very long, slow exhale throughthe mouth.
SPEAKER_00 (10:35):
So two inhales, one long exhale.
SPEAKER_01 (10:37):
Right.
That double inhale pops open thelittle air sacs in your lungs,
and the long exhale offloads amaximum amount of CO2.
It rapidly calms your nervoussystem.
SPEAKER_00 (10:46):
It's like hitting the brakes on the system.
What's another tool if you'retoo anxious?
SPEAKER_01 (10:50):
Panoramic vision.
When you're stressed, yourvision naturally tunnels.
It literally narrows.
That increases epinephrine.
SPEAKER_00 (10:58):
The fight or flight response.
SPEAKER_01 (10:59):
Exactly.
To reverse it, you just youdeliberately expand your field
of view.
Dilate your gaze until you cansee the walls, the ceiling, the
periphery.
It consciously tells your brainto deploy fewer alertness
chemicals.
SPEAKER_00 (11:12):
Okay, and what about the other side of the coin?
If I'm too tired, too foggy, andI need to ramp up my alertness.
Besides another cup of coffee.
SPEAKER_01 (11:20):
If you need to deploy norepinephrine and really
snap into alertness, you can usesuperoxygenation breathing.
Okay.
This is just about of rapid,deliberate breathing where
you're inhaling more than you'reexhaling on average.
Those fast, deep breaths quicklyactivate your sympathetic or
your alertness system.
The point is you have to get tothe starting line in the right
(11:42):
state.
SPEAKER_00 (11:43):
So once our state is managed and we're ready to seek
out those beautiful productiveerrors, there's one more thing
we can do (11:48):
an amplifier.
The vestibular system.
This seems like the ultimateunlock.
SPEAKER_01 (11:54):
It really is.
The vestibular system is yourhardwired balance mechanism.
It's in your inner ear.
It's made of semicircular canalsand these little calcium stones
that sense gravity and motion inthree planes.
SPEAKER_00 (12:04):
Pitch, yaw, and roll.
SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
Pitch like nodding yes, yaw, like shaking your head
no, and roll tilting side toside.
It's constantly telling yourbrain where you are in space.
SPEAKER_00 (12:13):
So how does this amplify plasticity?
SPEAKER_01 (12:15):
Here's the key mechanism.
When you introduce errors inyour vestibular experience,
meaning you lose your balance oryour body have to suddenly
compensate for being off-kilter,your cerebellum, the mini brain,
immediately signals deep braincenters.
SPEAKER_00 (12:31):
And what does that signal release?
SPEAKER_01 (12:32):
A simultaneous, massive burst of dopamine,
acetylcholine, andnorepinephrine, all three at
once.
Wow.
It's a core survival circuit.
It's designed to instantlyrecalibrate your motor movements
to stop you from falling andgetting injured.
And because it's such a highcontingency hardwired survival
mechanism, errors involvingbalance act as this incredible
(12:53):
amplifier on any kind oflearning.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
So if I'm struggling with a tough math problem and I
add a balance component like, Itry to solve it while standing
on one leg, I'm creating themaximum chemical environment for
encoding that information.
SPEAKER_01 (13:05):
You are leveraging evolution.
SPEAKER_00 (13:07):
You're basically cheating the system by
piggybacking on a survivalcircuit.
SPEAKER_01 (13:11):
It's a beautiful cheat code.
When you're struggling with aconcept, that's a cognitive
error.
If you pair that cognitive errorwith a physical balance error,
you hit the chemical releasejackpot and you turbocharge the
brain's willingness to change.
SPEAKER_00 (13:25):
This has been incredibly dense and actionable.
Let's try to consolidate thefour key ingredients we found
for accelerating adultneuroplasticity.
SPEAKER_01 (13:32):
Okay.
First, you have to manage yourautonomic arousal.
Get rid of that limbic frictionbefore you start.
SPEAKER_00 (13:38):
Right.
Using things like thephysiological side.
Second, structure your learningto engage in incremental errors.
You have to push through thatcritical seven to thirty minutes
of intentional failure.
SPEAKER_01 (13:49):
Third, establish high contingency.
You have to know why thislearning is vitally important to
you.
You have to create that urgency.
SPEAKER_00 (13:57):
And fourth, use the vestibular system.
Use balance-based movement toamplify the chemical release,
hacking a survival circuit forrapid change.
SPEAKER_01 (14:05):
That's the formula.
SPEAKER_00 (14:06):
And if we connect this back to the big picture,
why do adults have lessplasticity?
Maybe it's not that we can'taccess it, but maybe that we
just aren't deploying thosechemicals often enough.
SPEAKER_01 (14:17):
Think about the difference in movement between a
child and an adult.
A child is constantly rolling,tumbling, falling, moving in all
these different relationships togravity.
SPEAKER_00 (14:26):
Pitch, yaw, and roll or their entire world.
SPEAKER_01 (14:30):
And as adults, we tend to move in straight lines.
We sit, we walk, we reduce thedimensionality of our movement.
We stop generating those massivevestibular error signals.
We stop falling down.
We stop falling down, exactly.
So the provocative thought foryou to explore is this the
gateway to unlocking greaterbrain change might just be to
add more variety anddimensionality back into your
(14:52):
physical life.
Seek out those balance errors,move in new ways, and you might
just find that the gates tofaster learning swing wide open.
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