Scientific Definition
New neurons are formed in the adult brain, especially the hippocampus.
Plain-English Definition
New neurons are formed in the adult brain, especially the hippocampus.
Feynman Explanation
The brain you have at 60 is not the brain you had at 20 — and that's the good news.
Core Principle
New neurons are formed in the adult brain, especially the hippocampus.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
New neurons are formed in the adult brain, especially the hippocampus.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Lifelong learning has biological backing.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
The brain you have at 60 is not the brain you had at 20 — and that's the good news.
Examples
- Exercise, novelty, and learning all stimulate neurogenesis.
- Lifelong learning has biological backing.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Design environments that stimulate neurogenic conditions, not just deliver content.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Design environments that stimulate neurogenic conditions, not just deliver content.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
Mental rehearsal pattern: see yourself doing the new behavior, refine, step in, run it kinesthetically until it's natural.
The minimum energy needed to start a reaction; same idea for starting habits or initiatives.
The mind can be socially influenced toward conclusions that bypass scrutiny.
Time is fixed; energy is not. Manage the renewable.
The brain minimizes effort by default — most cognition is on cruise control.
People, tasks, and inputs that quietly drain disproportionate energy relative to value returned.
The deepest level of listening — where new possibility emerges that neither party brought into the room.
Rick Hanson: 'Velcro for negative, Teflon for positive.' The brain encodes threats faster and stickier than rewards.
Your capacity to learn, unlearn, and relearn faster than the environment changes.
Malcolm Knowles's principles of adult learning: self-direction, experience as resource, readiness, problem-centered orientation, intrinsic motivation.
Amishi Jha's research: attention is a finite, depletable, but trainable cognitive resource — short daily mindfulness measurably improves it.
Approach a situation as if you knew nothing.