Critical periods to learn

“Dispelling “Neuromyths””, chapter 6 of the Neuroscience book we had to read, made possible to reflect on things that can be useful to “sell the ointment”, but referring specifically to Neuroscience myths. In general, it’s a very interesting lecture and one of the issues that caught my attention in a greater way was the section where the author talked about the critical periods to learn about certain matters in lifespan. It states that adults are less capable of learning some things than kids or young individuals. It is related to the not confirmed belief that people lose neurons, but actually, according to investigations about it, nerve cells get smaller, they don’t reduce their number. In addition, researchers have concluded there are synaptogenesis types in life: the one linked to “experience-expectant learning” -it occurs early in lifetime- and the other connected to “experience-dependent learning” -with the exposure to varied environments-. So, the second one can be improved during existence. But, the thing is, the writer is against the thought that suggests there is just an opportunity to learn some matters like, for example, playing an instrument. It is true kids can learn faster, so that might be the generalized problem to say the first idea, but adults -maybe in a slowly way- can learn anything too. I think it is necessary to maintain our minds working, because of the process of cortical plasticity, I believe we can be prone to learn faster if we do that. I've noticed my 11 years old cousin is really fast when someone teaches her something. I believe it's a thing of mental speed that can be improved.