Neurons that fire together wire together
I came across this idea while learning about associations and memory. It suggests that the more we use certain pathways in the brain, the stronger they become. I like thinking of associations between ideas in the same way: each time one idea brings another to mind, that connection gets a little easier to revisit.
This makes me think that key ideas become more accessible when they have many paths leading to them. The more connections they have, the more likely something in daily life will trigger them. And maybe that’s the real way important ideas stay alive—by weaving them into the small moments of everyday experience.
I recently learned that this is a foundational neuroscientific principle, known as Hebbian theory after Donald Hebb who introduced the theory in 1949.
Hebbian theory attempts to explain associative or Hebbian learning, in which simultaneous activation of cells leads to pronounced increases in synaptic strength between those cells.
