Brain’s evolutionary ballet of Neuroplasticity

, as a physical organ, is very peculiar in one aspect when compared to other organs. It has an awareness of itself. There is no way this awareness can be measured, but its existence is too conspicuous to be wished away.In this era of smartphones with extra-smart features, brain has a superextra-smart feature called neuroplasticity. This ability of the brain helps it to repair, rebuild and reorganise neural pathways depending on the need. The concept of neuroplasticity is an apt example to understand Nature’s ingenuity and resourcefulness, as if it were a person.Transpose this to the outside realm. The planet Earth is composed of billions of living organisms with a million variants, and each of these organisms influence and also get influenced by billions of non-living entities contained in it. And this ‘big-bad-world’, not the benign planet Earth, is dominated and designed by a species called human. And as with many human endeavours, this world is fraught with its failings. And yet, broadly speaking, the big-bad-world and the benign Earth continue to co-exist peacefully, in spite the incessant tug-of-war.At a deeper level, this leads us to a concept called Anti-fragility, proposed by author Nassim Taleb. It implies that a system, when subjected to stress, can become stronger than it was earlier.If observed closely, Anti-fragility as a concept makes itself conspicuous almost everywhere. One realises that stock market scams strengthen the principles and processes of trading systems across the spectrum; viral and bacterial infections often strengthen body’s coping systems; and that for every action, the reaction is not just equal but rather better, and more robust than the action.And if we go further, we may appreciate how neuroplasticity could be one such example, where the physical brain may not build just one neural pathway in case of a blockage, but may overcompensate the injury by building several neural pathways. Neuroplasticity enables the brain to calibrate itself, adapt and evolve, as if it is aware of its own physicality.The words ‘evolve and adapt’ when used in the context of a physical organ have huge implications. ‘Evolution and adaptation’ are totally synonymous with Charles Darwin and his revolutionary ‘Theory of Evolution’.And this is an aha moment. The physical brain not only finds an alternative route but builds several alternative routes. Succinctly put, the brain not only recovers but recovers more robustly. This means that during the course of evolution, nature not only adapted itself to needs and adversities but made itself stronger than earlier. Thus, the Nature, with all its living and non-living entities, marches one step at a time, with each step making it more resilient. And this makes extreme practical sense, too. Just as one can ascend the ladder only by putting in extra effort for every extra step, Nature also must put in extra effort to rise, or move ahead, in the continuum of evolution. There is no other way.Thus, in a way, if Darwin explained how evolution happened, then Nassim explains, tangentially, why evolution happened.Maybe Friedrich Nietzsche had a point when he said, “That which doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.”