I hate these kinds of assumptions ...<p>"There’s a reason adults don’t pick up Japanese or learn how to kite surf. It’s ridiculously hard. In stark contrast, young people can learn the most difficult things relatively easily. Polynomials, Chinese, skateboarding — no problem!"<p>Um, ask some teachers about how easy that is sometime. I'm sure you'd get an earful.<p>The biggest difference between adults and children is not neuroplasticity--the biggest difference is <i>TIME</i>.<p>Children can spend 4+ hours a day learning a language, playing guitar, drawing, etc. In one year, that's roughly 1,000 hours.<p>I would challenge you to find an adult who can commit 1,000 hours in a year into learning something completely new.<p>In addition, children have a much better reinforcement loop. A child who can say even a couple of words in a foreign language will get wonderful praise; an adult won't receive praise until he can practically get a PhD in the language. Musical instruments are similar--a child can bang out stuff and everybody thinks it's wonderful--one wrong note as an adult and everybody is a critic.<p>I suspect there is some neuroplasticity involved in language--certain sounds seem to be indistinguishable to non-native speakers after a certain age. However, I suspect that the neuroplasticity is dwarfed by simple time.<p>I see little value in futzing with drugging the brain until we normalize things like time.
Valproate is unpleasant, and has a high incidence of side effects - I wouldn't be in a hurry to self-medicate to improve neuroplasticity.<p>The beneficial effects of Valproate are likely mediated by increases in VEGF, BDNF and GDNF. Cardiovascular exercise has also been shown to increase expression of all these genes. Exercise has also been linked to increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus and neocortex, and that has been backed up with demonstrations of improved memory and learning. It will also help you stay lean, make you feel better and extend your life somewhat.<p>If you read or watch TV/movies, just start doing it on a treadmill, elliptical or exercise bike at a leisurely pace, instead of sitting around. An hour or two a day of relaxing exercise really does make a world of difference.
This is interesting - I <i>just</i> posted a comment about being prescribed Depakote to handle Migraine (which has completely eliminated my bi-weekly attacks for the last two years).<p>I haven't paid particular attention to this kind of effect (and now that I know about it, I am certainly able to fall into placebo). Frankly, I haven't noticed <i>any</i> side effects from the medicine[0] other than a minor one of no longer enjoying the effects of alcohol -- though I was never a heavy drinker, I haven't drank <i>at all</i> since I started taking it because the relaxing, positive effects of a glass of wine are no longer present.<p>[0] I've stuck to a rule about side-effects for medicines like this. My wife reads them thoroughly and I explain anything "different" that I might be feeling when taking the drug and allow her to make the judgement call as to whether or not I need to call the doctor/pharmacist. Because these medicines have such a huge list of side-effects, I'd find myself expecting to get one or more of them so much that I'd manufacturer them in nocebo effect style.
After some reading [1] I found out that electrophilic ketones are better than valproic acid as histone deacetylase inhibitors. Maybe this is the source of the enhanced state-of-mind that people on a keto diet [2] report (me currently, reporting in).<p>1 - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone_deacetylase_inhibitor#HDI_classification" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histone_deacetylase_inhibitor#...</a><p>2 - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet</a>
Here's a nice double-bind: messing with your brain to become smarter when nobody knows exactly what the outcome will be, is a bad idea; yet, to understand this you need to not be dumb in the first place.
I learnt a practical amount of a second language at 30. The first 3 or so months were super hard and I found that to even remember basic words I would have to repeat them about 10 times. But then I felt my brain changing and I could remember new words much more easily. About a year after that I picked up another language and this time my experience was that I could remember the words a fair amount quicker. So from personal experience - my brain just needed the stimuli for a prolonged period then it seemed to change
> It turns out that a few key molecules act to open and shut periods in brain development. One is called histone deacetylase, or HDAC; it makes DNA coil up tightly and stops the synthesis of proteins that promote plasticity — thereby closing off the learning period.<p>I presume this blocks only a few genes, so the coiling up is local (?) I can't imagine this blocking all genes.
My intuition tells me that neuroplasticity is largely driven by genetics. Outliers in this space are likely caused by mutations related to neurofibromatosis. I also imagine that there is a huge memory component in some of these variants (for example, a person who can learn quickly but also forgets quickly).
I stopped reading when they used a comically bad simile:<p>> Think of the brain’s sensitive periods as blown glass: The molten glass is very malleable, but you have a relatively brief time before it cools and becomes crystalline. Put it back into the furnace, and it can once again change shape.<p>(the definition of a glass is that it is noncrystalline).