Brain Flexibility in Learning

Your Brain Runs on Two “Plasticity” Channels

—One for Staying Stable, One for Learning 

  For decades, neuroscientists thought the brain adjusted its connections for learning and for background “idle” activity using the same synaptic machinery. A new mouse study from the University of Pittsburgh, published June 17, 2025 in Science Advances, shows that’s not true: the brain actually uses separate synaptic sites—essentially two different channels—to handle these two kinds of signaling. That split may explain how the brain stays stable while still being flexible enough to learn. FuturityScienceDaily 

 

The Simple Version 

• Old idea: All synapses adjusted themselves the same way, whether the signal was a spontaneous “background” blip or a learning-related, experience-driven burst. Futurity 

• New finding: Spontaneous signals and evoked (experience-driven) signals are handled at different synaptic transmission sites, each with its own rules and developmental timeline. FuturityScienceDaily 

• Why it matters: Separating these channels likely lets the brain keep a steady baseline (homeostasis) while strengthening the connections that matter for learning (Hebbian plasticity)—two goals that can otherwise clash. FuturityScienceDaily 

 

What the Researchers Actually Did  

1. Where they looked: The team focused on the primary visual cortex of mice—the first stop in the cortex for processing what the eyes see. FuturityScienceDaily 

1. What they expected: That spontaneous and evoked transmissions would mature the same way as the animals started seeing the world. FuturityScienceDaily 

1. What they found instead: After the eyes opened, evoked signals kept getting stronger, but spontaneous signals leveled off—a clear sign they follow different rules. FuturityScienceDaily 

1. The clincher experiment: When they chemically activated otherwise silent receptors on the postsynaptic neuron, spontaneous activity went up—but evoked signals didn’t budge. That’s strong evidence these two signal types are physically and functionally separated. FuturityScienceDaily 

 

Why You (or your clients) Should Care 

• Learning & memory: The brain can finetune the connections that support learning without destabilizing the overall network. FuturityScienceDaily 

• Mental health & disease: Because many conditions (e.g., autism, Alzheimer’s disease, substance use disorders) involve disrupted synaptic signaling, knowing there are two plasticity channels could help researchers target treatments more precisely. FuturityScienceDaily 

• Therapies & training (e.g., neurofeedback): Interventions might work better when they respect or leverage the distinction between stabilizing baseline activity and driving experiencedependent change. (This is an inference based on the paper’s mechanism, not a tested clinical claim.) FuturityScienceDaily 

 

The Bottom Line 

Your brain doesn’t rely on a single “plasticity knob.” It uses two distinct knobs—one to keep things steady, and one to learn from experience. That architectural split helps explain how we can be both stable creatures and lifelong learners. 

 

Sources  

• Original study: Yue Yang, Oliver Schlüter, et al. “(Science Advances, June 17, 2025), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads5750.” Futurity 

• Futurity writeup: “Discovery challenges decades-old ideas about brain flexibility,” Futurity, June 17, 2025. Futurity 

• ScienceDaily summary: “Decades-old assumptions about brain plasticity upended,” ScienceDaily, June 3, 2025 (based on University of Pittsburgh materials). ScienceDaily 

  

-A Balanced Brain is a Better Brain for a Happier Life-