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Proof That Practice Does Make Perfect
eldavojohn sends us an article about a discovery by Carnegie Mellon researchers that explains why repetitive studying or training is effective. Previous research had suggested the opposite, which ran counter to nearly everyone's personal experience. Scientists hope that this information will help us to learn more about diseases which affect the memory, such as Alzheimer's. From the article:
"In a series of experiments the researchers blocked different receptors, including NMDA, to see the receptors' effect on long-term neural stimulation. They found that while the NMDA receptor is required to begin neural strengthening, a second neurotransmitter receptor -- the metabotropic glutamate (mGlu) receptor -- comes into play after this first phase of cellular learning. ...blocking mGlu receptors caused strengthening to stop."
What I want to know is, how many people block their own mGlu receptors? I mean, there are an awful lot of people that just do not seem capable of learning from experience.
So *that* explains the 2004 election. It all makes sense now.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
Practice more....
Could everybody who tagged this as 'duh' explain to me exactly how you felt it was obvious that while the NMDA receptor is required to begin neural strengthening, the mGlu receptor causes strengthening to stop?
The details are trivial and useless; The reasons, as always, purely human ones.
I hate the move "The Karate Kid" for many reasons, but there was one true thing. After practicing for (supposedly) hours, at the end of the movie the kid was able to block or hit someone because he'd learned a particular move through repetition. After taking a year of karate, I was joking around with a friend and sparring in the office. He did some feints, aborted punches, almost kicks... I did the same. Then at one point time seemed to stand still. I felt - rather than knew - that he was about to throw a punch. It's almost as if I was playing a video game where the bad guy did the same thing over and over again. He threw the punch....
And while trying to block it, I knocked my glasses of my head with own hand and sent them hurtling to the ground...
And still in slow motion I tried to catch them...
And fell...
The fall seemed to last forever.
And of course there was a cute girl watching.
In my mind I'd gone over a hundred times what would happen if I had to defend myself against a bunch of ruthless thugs while she was there. But for some reason it didn't happen. Instead of some Matrix-like martial arts sequences that I'd rehearsed a thousand times in my mind, I fell on my ass and almost broke my glasses and it looked like I'd punched myself to cause it.