Maggie Blog Entry 1

 Aside from my music major, I am also working towards a minor in psychology and have taken quite a few classes surrounding neuroscience and the psychology of learning/development. Reading these chapters and making the connections between prior psychological knowledge and current classes I have on behavior has been really interesting! I loved the initial introduction to myelin sheaths and their purpose of enhancing and insulating neural signals. Of course, I’ve learned about myelin in many classes but the idea that we can strengthen our myelin to enhance neural connections in specific centers of our brains and therefore with specific skills blew my mind. I had never considered the idea that pausing and relearning, consistent practice, identifying mistakes, etc. could increase the fat on our neurons which then leads me to think of human behaviors that decrease the fat on our neurons. If (in our case) singers aren’t taking care of their bodies and taking in the nutrients we need, our bodies naturally take fat and this includes myelin fat. This is why if we haven’t eaten, drunk water, or slept very much throughout the day or night, our thought processes slow down, we take in much less information and are distracted easily, and even are less motivated. This is because our myelin isn’t supplied enough to insulate or enhance those connections. So not only is deep practice (as mentioned in the book) physiologically crucial for successful skill enhancement, but so is deep care for ourselves and our bodies.

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