The Best Ways to Rewire Your Brain
- Austin Perlmutter MD
- 2 days ago
- 6 min read
Vital tools to wire your brain for better overall health, mental health and brain wellness
By Austin Perlmutter, MD
Until very recently, scientists believed the adult brain was a relatively static organ. The basic idea was that your brain grew and developed during childhood and then became relatively inflexible, until it slowly started to decline in function when we reached middle age. But this is no longer considered accurate. In fact, the idea that the brain is static in any sense has been fundamentally overturned by breakthrough discoveries in neuroscience over the past several decades. Key to this reconceptualization is the understanding of neuroplasticity — the brain's ability to reorganize its structure, function, and connections in response to experience, learning, and environmental input.
What is Neuroplasticity?
Neuroplasticity, or brain plasticity, refers to the brain's capacity to change at both structural and functional levels throughout life. These changes occur every moment of every day. Neuroplasticity issues are believed to underlie conditions like depression and dementia, and neuroplasticity is also key to forming new habits, breaking out of unhealthy habits, and just generally wiring our brains for better health. Our goal is to direct this change for our benefit. Some examples of factors that can lead to major changes in the direction and amount of neuroplasticity include:
Learning and memory formation
Environmental stimulation
Injury or disease
Therapeutic interventions (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness)
Physical activity
Nutrition
Sleep quality
Stress
Supplements
Pharmaceutical drugs
Psychedelics
There are two primary types of neuroplasticity, and multiple subtypes within these categories, but for the sake of this conversation, we’ll just cover the basics. If you’d like more details, see the attached article.
Functional plasticity: changes in how neurons function.
Structural plasticity: physical changes in the wiring and macrostructure of the brain.
The Cellular and Molecular Basis of Brain Rewiring
At the cellular level, neuroplasticity is supported by changes in the strength of connections between neurons, which is called synaptic plasticity and the number of connections between neurons, which includes creation of new synapses and creation of new branches of the ends of our neurons called dendritic branches. Additionally, neuroplasticity includes the generation of new neurons, called neurogenesis, a process that has only been shown to occur at low levels in specific areas within the human brain across the lifespan, but importantly does occur even into older age. One of the key mechanisms undergirding neuroplasticity is the balance between long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD), a complicated way of describing how the strength of connections between neurons changes each day.
In addition to the neuron and subcellular processes we just discussed, there are a variety of signaling molecules that significantly influence neuroplasticity. For example, brain-derived neurotrophic factor or “BDNF” is part of a family of molecules called “neurotrophins” that actively boost long-term potentiation and promote neuroplasticity. Small immune molecules called cytokines also influence neuroplasticity by suppressing or enhancing the process, and neuromodulators and neurotransmitters like serotonin and glutamate also play key roles, as do hormones like cortisol. The diversity of signals that influence these brain pathways means that each day, there are multiple ways we can work to boost healthy neuroplasticity, which we’ll get into next.
Evidence from Human and Animal Studies on Enhancing Healthy Neuroplasticity
Across a host of preclinical and clinical studies, researchers have demonstrated that our lifestyle and other daily choices play a major role in neuroplastic processes. These data range from cell-level studies showing that inflammation and stress hormones may dampen neuroplastic processes to interventional studies in humans showing changes in brain structure and function with pharmaceuticals, meditation and other tools. With the understanding that our brains are always being rewired, let’s discuss some practical tools that can help us to shift that balance towards the side of better health.
1. Exercising Your Brain
A host of studies show that performing moderately cognitively taxing tasks can help promote healthy neuroplasticity. This neuroscience undergirds the concept that lifelong learning helps boost the brain and protect it against cognitive decline. Visual evidence of the rapid effects of learning on neuroplasticity were observed in a 2012 study in Neuron demonstrating that two hours of learning led to changes in MRI imaging within the hippocampus. It’s proposed that novelty and brain training (e.g., learning a new language, playing an instrument) can promote enhanced beneficial neuroplasticity, with interventional data demonstrating enhancements in memory and processing speed associated with targeted brain training tasks. The bottom line here is simple: try to stretch your brain daily to maximize the neuroplastic benefits.
2. Physical Exercise, Including Resistance Training
Regular physical activity is likely the single most powerful lifestyle tool for actively boosting healthy neuroplasticity. Exercise has been shown to demonstrably increase the size of the hippocampus, and it also dramatically enhances levels of the neurotrophin BDNF, along with helping to mitigate neuroplasticity-impairing stress and inflammation.
3. Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness practices appear to enhance functional and structural brain changes. Multiple studies have shown changes in the brain associated with engaging in periods of meditation and mindfulness. For example, a 2023 article in Nature Scientific Reports found that mindfulness-based interventions were associated with structural brain changes in the brain’s right insula and precentral gyrus region compared to controls. While there are diverse reports around the best types of mindfulness and meditation, starting with a 10 minute daily commitment to any mindful practice is a great start.
4. Nutrition
Generally speaking, it’s believed that diets rich in minimally-processed foods support healthy neuroplasticity while a typical Western or American diet may have the opposite effect. A key mechanism at play here may be neuroinflammation which is increased by eating a diet rich in processed foods and potentially decreased with a diet rich in minimally-processed plant foods, omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and generally a diversity of whole foods. Though there’s lots of nuance around this topic, a Mediterranean pattern diet, which is shown to help protect against depression and dementia, may also be optimal for promoting healthy neuroplasticity.
5. Sleep
Sleep is essential for memory consolidation and general modulation of neuroplasticity. Sleep is also fundamental for general brain health. If you’re worried about your sleep quality and basic tools like decreasing light, sound, stress, caffeine and alcohol before bed aren’t helping, getting a sleep study and seeking professional care may be a good plan.
6. Psychedelics
While psychedelics are far from a low-level intervention, one of the most promising areas of research around their benefits for brain health focuses on their potent neuroplastic action. We know that psychedelics induce rapid and readily observable effects on mood, cognition and brain activation patterns in humans, suggesting the possibility for significant neuroplastic change. In animal data, psilocybin has been found to promote rapid neuroplastic benefit, and other animal data shows similar effects for LSD and DMT. It’s notable that in addition to directly binding to the BDNF receptor, psychedelics are now believed to influence neuroplasticity-augmenting pathways like inflammation, stress and metabolism. If you’re interested to learn more, check out my video on this the topic of neuroplasticity and psychedelics.
7. Pharmaceuticals
For many years, we’ve believed that brain-acting drugs work only on a single pathway. With the advent of modern scientific tools, those paradigms are being actively challenged. Many neurological drugs are now believed to work in part through their effects on neuroplasticity. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were once believed to work specifically on serotonin pathways, but new research suggests they may have neuroplastic influences. Anti-epilepsy drugs have also been shown to have effects on neuroplasticity in different parts of the brain. In a more roundabout way, because inflammation may suppress healthy neuroplasticity, any drug that acts on the immune system could have a potential effect on these processes as well.
8. Supplements
While there’s not as much good data suggesting that most supplements directly and significantly alter neuroplasticity in humans, it’s worth noting that because of the multiple pathways that influence the process, certain supplements are worthy of an extra look. When it comes to proxies for neuroplasticity, BDNF is generally at the top of the list. In a 2023 meta analysis of 12 trials, it was found that supplementation with omega-3 fatty acids was linked to higher blood levels of BDNF with some data suggesting benefit at around 2 grams a day for 10 weeks. In a 2022 meta-analysis looking at people with depression, consumption of probiotic bacteria, specifically lactobacillus and bifidobacterium was linked to increased BDNF levels.
Other research has focused on the role of polyphenols, a set of plant nutrients that are naturally found in plant-based foods, and how they may boost neuroplasticity. Some studies show that supplementation with polyphenols and polyphenol-rich foods are linked to better cognitive function and decreases in neuroinflammation in preclinical models. In a preclinical 2017 paper published in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers found that dietary polyphneols may cross the blood-brain barrier and help protect the brain against inflammation.
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