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."

Comments

Re:I think they're looking at this the wrong way .

[User 956]

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.

Re:Sheesh

[ComaVN]

knowing that the Earth curved space in such a way to allow this is something quite different

That's only a (flawed) theory. Intelligent falling is a much more plausible explanation.