Miriam is a competitive gymnast. Every day she goes over all of her routines several times. Every time she goes through a routine, Miriam is:
A) developing a more detailed schema of that routine
B) fitting it more completely into her hierarchical memory for gymnastics
C) strengthening existing synaptic connections
D) increasing the size of her frontal lobes

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Every time Miriam goes through a routine she is repeating the same movements, which helps strengthen the connections between the neurons involved in those movements. This is known as synaptic plasticity, and it is how the brain adapts and learns through repetition. Option A and B are also possible explanations, but they are more focused on how Miriam is organizing and storing the information about the routine in her memory, rather than how her brain is changing as a result of the repetitions. Option D is not relevant because the size of the frontal lobes is not directly related to learning and memory.

Miriam Is a Competitive Gymnast