The Science of Learning from Mistakes: How Neurogenesis, Fasting, and Modern Diet Impact Our Ability to Change

This podcast episode delves into the pervasive human struggle of failing to learn from mistakes, even when consciously aware of detrimental behaviors and experiencing positive reinforcement from corrective actions. The host highlights common examples like habitual phone use upon waking or inconsistent exercise, despite knowing the negative consequences or benefits. The core argument posits that this inability to implement lasting change stems from a lack of neurogenesis, specifically in the hippocampus, the brain region crucial for learning and memory. When neurogenesis is inhibited, the brain struggles to 'wipe the slate clean' of old, suboptimal behaviors and encode new, more adaptive ones.

The discussion introduces a compelling rat experiment published in the journal Nature, where rats in a water maze either learned to adapt to a changing platform location or persistently sought the old, incorrect spot. This experiment illustrates the two types of learning responses and links the inability to adapt to inhibited neurogenesis. From an evolutionary perspective, the episode explains that starvation or caloric scarcity served as the most powerful signal for our ancestral brains to recognize that current strategies were failing, thereby inducing neurogenesis and prompting the learning of new survival behaviors. This mechanism allowed for critical brain rewiring when existing patterns proved ineffective.

However, in modern society, constant access to calorically dense food inadvertently inhibits these crucial starvation signals. Despite conscious recognition of personal failures or a desire for change (processed in the cerebral cortices), the brain's deeper wiring remains unchanged because it perceives no threat to survival due to abundant food. This disconnect prevents the necessary neurogenesis that would enable the brain to learn from mistakes and integrate new, optimal behaviors. The brain, in essence, believes it has 'won the game of life' as long as it receives rich nutrients, thus suppressing the very mechanism needed for behavioral adaptation.

To counteract this, the episode offers practical recommendations for inducing neurogenesis. These include adopting low-carbohydrate diets, engaging in general caloric restriction (e.g., 1800 calories/day), and practicing intermittent fasting (e.g., restricting eating to an 8-hour window). Exercise is also mentioned as a neurogenesis inducer. The host emphasizes that by stimulating neurogenesis, individuals can bridge the gap between conscious understanding and subconscious behavioral change, leading to a genuine ability to learn from mistakes. The concept is further supported by research linking cognitive flexibility (correlated with neurogenesis) to higher performance in areas like video gaming, suggesting broader life improvements.

"sometimes we do things right that we know aren't correct but we keep doing them"

"it's almost like there is a subconscious block from what we know we should be doing"

"there's one part of the brain in which we see neurogenesis and that's in the hippocampus"

"if that neurogenesis in the hippocampus is inhibited in some way then we may not be able to learn from our mistakes"

"the most powerful signal to rewire your brain is starvation"

"the number one thing that causes neurogenesis is actually fasting or starvation"

"what our experience of this is is that we consciously know that's the cerebral cortices... but somehow what we understand up here is not changing our wiring down below"

"Gamers who have higher levels of cognitive flexibility are higher rank in fact there's only one cognitive variable that correlates with rank in League of Legends and that is actually your cognitive flexibility"