Leonardo & Da Vinci
Learning, Unlearning and the Beginner's Brain-Mind: What Neuroscience and Neuroplasticity Reveal
"...I want you to forget my past environment, behaviour, skills and capabilities, beliefs and values, identity and purpose associated with me as an inventor. I am a beginner in natural philosophy. I have the beginner's mind free of the burden of past knowledge related directly or indirectly to natural philosophy. And I have the beginner's joy instarting out on this adventure to learn the symbolic language of Nature."
"Ah, then you have the beginner's luck also, Angiras. For, I am going to respect your wishes."
- Dr. B S Ramachandra, Leonardo and Da Vinci - The Tao of Meta-Learning
Leonardo: Da Vinci, continuing from our previous dialogue, I am curious to know more about the beginner's brain-mind. Can we talk about it a little?
Da Vinci: Yes, of course, Leonardo. Well, the best way to begin is this: The Beginner's Mind is a state of mind that is neurologically primed for tremendous learning. The Beginner's Mind is not a mere metaphor. It is a neuro-cognitive state associated with the firing of a learning hormone termed 'Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF).'
Leonardo: BDNF?
Da Vinci: Yes, when one engages in learning for the first time, specific neurons fire together to facilitate the activity. BDNF consolidates these neurons and makes them available for future use. The next time the activity is performed, the specific neurons fire together thanks to BDNF. BDNF also strengthens the neural networks by insulating them with myelin or white matter.
Leonardo: And myelin or white matter fortifies the neural strands?
Da Vinci: Actually, BDNF activates the nucleus basalis that allows the focussing of attention and sustains it throughout the learning period. The nucleus basalis also helps in differentiating the brain maps in the sense that it serves as a sorting mechanism to keep activity centres catalogued. This learning period is known as the critical period and once it is over the BDNF shuts down. The charm disappears from the activity because it is no longer neurologically necessary. It may be necessary for the person for other purposes but not neurologically.
Leonardo: Why, not neurologically, Da Vinci?
Da Vinci: Because, BDNF is responsible for the Beginner's Mind and so also Beginner's Luck. It endows the brain with joy and enthusiasm for the learning. One could say it is Beginner's Joy. It gives the thrill of the chase and remains as long as the learning is not complete. And once the learning reaches a plateau, it stops. That is why the beginning period of learning is generally so enthralling. So, the brain has BDNF built into it as an evolutionary mechanism, to cause learning to happen or equivalently, to incentivise increase in ordered complexity.
Leonardo: Learning is an evolutionary adaptive mechanism then, as it is favoured by Nature herself!
Da Vinci: This is also the reason why a beginner's mind can make such discoveries that a mature mind perhaps cannot except by an exceptional development. A beginner's mind is full of unlimited possibilities and in it the BDNF is in full command supplying tremendous energy. The energy leads to insight. A mature mind cannot command the BDNF to that extent as it has reached saturation and is too full of bias, prejudices, assumptions, prejudgements and predilections. A beginner's mind is a cup that is empty for the learning to fill it with new knowledge. That is why the phrase "empty the cup," is not just a metaphor. It means, to unlearn. And unlearning is not the same as the reverse of learning or even relearning! It is neurologically different from learning. Two very different hormones are involved in unlearning and learning respectively.
Leonardo: So, unlearning is not necessarily just the opposite of learning! This is similar to how disorder is not just the opposite of order! Who knows, perhaps the former is a reflection of the latter at a deeper metaphorical level then!
Da Vinci: That could perhaps be a possibility, Leonardo. And given this background from neuroscience it becomes clear that the nurturing of a beginner's mind needs a dramatically different approach than that of a mature mind. Because of the BDNF the beginner's mind is vastly superior to a mature mind. Also associated with this state are all the learning emotions like curiosity, surprise, wonder, awe and mystery. The emotional brain sector or the mammalian mid-brain is the most powerful of the triune brain sectors present in the human being. As is well known, the human brain unlike the of reptiles and mammals consists of three sectors, the survival or reptilian hind-brain, the emotional or social mid-brain and the thinking self-aware or human fore-brain.
Of these sectors the emotional brain is endowed with the highest possibilities and its coupling with the forebrain during the learning phase makes learning spontaneous and effortless. What inhibits this possibility is again learning but done subversively. As the eminent psychologist Martin Seligman first brought to light, learning can happen in both positive and negative ways. Positively, when it brings about optimism and negatively when it brings about helplessness. Learned helplessness is when one learns to inhibit one's natural capabilities by 'learning,' to diminish them.
Leonardo: That means, a mature mind attempting to instruct a beginner's mind often falls trap to this fallacy. It most often endows the beginner's mind with a learned helplessness! As most elders do to children and as most teachers do to students!
Da Vinci: That is what happens in most part, Leonardo. This is because a mature mind looks askance at the youthful ambitions, excitement and fascination that are the hallmark of a beginner. The beginner's mind and a mature mind also differ dramatically in their preferences and approach to choice of subject matter. The beginner's mind looks for strangeness and novelty as that is exactly the function of the BDNF. The mature mind looks for familiarity and sameness as the BDNF has most often shut down the learning phase. The mature mind looks for consistency. The beginner's mind looks for contradictions in a given paradigm. The mature mind seeks to maintain the paradigm. The beginner's mind seeks to shift the paradigm. The mature mind maintains the status quo. The beginner's mind challenges the status quo.
Leonardo: The Beginner's Brain-Mind and the Master's Brain-Mind are actually complementary, then. Both are necessary and sufficient conditions for a given system or paradigm to exist, retain uniqueness and evolve in time!
Da Vinci: That's a more comprehensive way to look at it, Leonardo. Neither one, by itself, can sustain a given system or paradigm. The only problem is when one is given exclusive significance at the cost of the other!
Leonardo: That's really a profound observation, Da Vinci. It would be good to take it up in our further dialogues.
Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF)
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do." ― Rob Siltanenere.
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