E1: Neuroplasticity for Voice Actors

What if I told you that your brain physically changes every time you practice something new? Well, I'm going to explore that and many other things about the brain based on neuroscience that's backed up by scientific research.

This podcast focuses on the mental aspects of performance and how it applies to professionals in various fields seeking a mental performance edge.

I'll explore how to build mental strength based on neuroscience, highlighting how we can train our brains to overcome challenges, directly connecting the science with the art. My name is Marco Ragazio and welcome to the Cognitive Performer. Alrighty then.

So the idea for this podcast came from my own frustrations and mental roadblocks that held me back and things I feel like I still have to manage. I'm not a psychologist or a therapist, so I'll be going on this journey of understanding and learning with you.

Let me share with you a bit of my background. Before starting my voice acting career, I spent much of my life in the health and fitness industry.

I was a personal trainer, I I was a bodybuilder, I was a powerlifter, massage therapist, I owned a gym. I have a master's in exercise science and I taught all of those ology classes about the human body.

I've had a deep fascination with the mind for a long time, going back to my undergrad work and even my graduate work. Psychology was a hidden desire to learn type thing for me.

I never really pursued it when I was younger, but I have read my fair share of stoic philosophy, self help books, motivational literature and so on, like many of you did. And while they did and still do, help me to have them all coalesce into something formative that I can bring with me every day can be a challenge.

I hope that you find this podcast useful in understanding the mechanisms of the brain and how it impacts us, how we can change and rebuild our brains so that we can be what we want again. This isn't magic or some kind of nebulous concept that's out of our control. It's science.

I'll also have links to studies, when available, that back up the theories I speak about here.

Now, I will say right off the bat, the podcast will get a little bit sciency at times, but I'm positive that if you stick around, those parts will become very easy to understand. I promise it will all make sense.

And because listening only to me talk is not something I wish on anybody, I plan to invite guests on the show to share their expertise and experience. So thank you for joining me on this journey of discovery about the human brain.

And learning how much we can control or affect it with our actions and thoughts. So what do you say? Let's get into it. How does the mind learn things? In a word, neuroplasticity. Okay, That's a big $2 word, Marco. What does that mean?

What is neuroplasticity? Okay, I'm going to apologize again. This episode is going to be a lot of sciencey stuff, so buckle up.

But we have to lay some important groundwork here going forward so that the concepts become so obvious for you. I promise you this is. This is all going to make sense.

And at the end of this, you'll see, like, oh, I can see this already before we start going into any really deep discussions about it. So let's start with the main cell of the brain, or the whole nervous system for that matter. That's the neuron. And it's shaped like.

Like a spiky ball that has a long tail. Now, the spiky ball itself is the cell body. The spikes are called dendrites, and the long tail is called the axon.

At the end of the axon are finger like appendages called axon terminals. Cells connect to each other. Axon terminals, two dendrites. Okay. The connection isn't physically connected. They're not locked in.

The connection is actually a space, and that space is called the synapse.

Now, information gets passed back and forth between all of these neurons by something called neurotransmitters, and that's what crosses the synapse to the next neuron. Now, there are plenty of different types of neurotransmitters that do various things, and I'm not going to get into all of that right now.

Let's just have an actual definition of neuroplasticity.

Now, according to the National Institute of Health's National Library of Medicine, neuroplasticity, also known as neuroplasticity or brain plasticity, is a process that involves adaptive structural and functional changes.

To the brain, it is defined as the ability of the nervous system to change its activity in response to intrinsic or extrinsic stimuli by reorganizing its structure, functions, or connections. Okay, so what does that all mean to us in layman's terms? The body adapts to everything, and it's very good at it.

Our brains adapt to stimuli much like our muscles respond to training. Babies are a great example of this. They have extreme neuroplasticity. Right?

I mean, babies have to learn how to hold their head up, how to focus on you holding them. What Are these little wiggly things at the end of my arms. They don't even know what the arms are.

Everything that the baby is learning going forward is based on neuroplasticity. Now, neuroplasticity does start to wane a little bit as we get older. We don't have the same growth as we did as an infant because we don't need it.

But it is a lifelong process and we can still keep learning. We do keep learning things. That's neuroplasticity at work. Now I'll go a little tangent here and explain a little bit about right brain development.

So during the first 18 months, the right brain develops first in the infant. Oftentimes when the baby's crying and upset or whatever, the primary caregiver usually comes to hold the baby, calm the baby down.

There is literally a connection from right brain to right brain from the caregiver, the mother, father, sibling, grandmother, whomever, the primary caregiver who the baby interacts with most often. There's a connection, right brain to right brain.

And if that caregiver is remaining calm and soothing the baby and taking care of the baby, and the baby's all frantic, the baby learns how to down regulate their emotions intuitively. It becomes a subconscious thing, an unconscious thing, I should say, I'm sorry, a non conscious thing.

Then they learn that from that primary caregiver.

So it's vitally important for the development of infants to have that primary caregiver that's relaxed when they are being all kinds of frenetic things. And this has been proven. They have tested this. They've done brain scans simultaneously with the infant and the caregiver.

And they see that the same sections on the brain, on both of them, will light up at the same time. This also, by the way, happens with certain therapists and their clients.

So people tend to have this right brain to right brain connection with others. Take that what you will. I don't think it's mind reading.

I just think it's, hey, you ever say that person has good energy and, well, maybe something there? I don't know. We'll look into that. Okay. Okay, let's get back to neuroplasticity. There are a couple of different kinds of plasticity.

There's functional plasticity where the brain can actually move functions from one damaged part of the brain to another undamaged part of the brain. And there's structural plasticity. This is where the brain's ability to change its physical structure because of learning.

Okay, do we have that so far? There's two types. Now. Part of the changes in the brain come from neurogenesis and synaptic plasticity.

Neurogenesis is just what it sounds like, the formation of new neurons. It's rare. It doesn't happen all the time. It's a slow, slow, slow process. Certain parts of the brain can do it more than others, but that's one way.

Synaptic plasticity. Remember the synapse. Synaptic plasticity is the ability of the synapses to strengthen or weaken depending on activity.

So the more repetitive activity that you do, the more practice learning, reading. You build or strengthen those synapses, those connections. As you do less of something, those synapses start to get a little weaker.

You know that saying, use it or lose it, you know, it's kind of there, right? Isn't it? Okay, Another one to know is Hebb's rule. H E B B. Hebb's rule. Neurons that fire together wire together.

Basically, that means neurons that fire together more often build stronger connections. Got it. Okay. Sorry about all that. I bet you're starting to see where it's going though, right? Cool stuff. There is someone you should know about.

His name is Dr. Michael Merzenich. He's often touted as the godfather of neuroplasticity. He pioneered much of the research in this field.

If you're interested, you can check out his book, how the new science of brain plasticity can change your life. He also has a clinically proven brain training program called BrainHQ. I've started working with it.

Personally, I'm not that far into it, but I'll keep going and I'll let you know what I think of it in some future episode down the road. Now let's bring this back to my peeps, the voice actors.

This means your brain is literally reshaping itself with every voice exercise you perform, every coaching session, every time you try and you repeat and repeat and repeat. The process of maybe a new character, a new genre that you're working in, you're literally reshaping your brain.

Now, obviously, this is happening all day long with anything in your life.

Okay, now that we have looked at the micro aspect of the brain, the neurons and the connections and things like that, let's go pull back a little bit and discuss a little bit more macro parts of the brain. Let's first start with the motor cortex. This is an area of the brain that controls the vocal muscles.

It actually controls any voluntary muscle activity. Side note, the cortex is the outer layer of the brain. So the Motor cortex is a portion of that.

Another area we need to know about is the Broca's area. This is the region in the left hemisphere of the brain that's primarily involved in language production. There's the Wernicke's area.

It is primarily responsible for language comprehension. And then finally, the auditory cortex. This is for voice monitoring and pitch detection.

Now, let's think of your brain, I don't know, like a vast wilderness. The first time you try a new voice technique or accent or something, you're essentially cutting through, you know, an untouched forest. It's hard.

Requires a lot of concentration on your part, and you might not take the most efficient route. But here's the amazing part. Each time you practice that technique, you're walking the same path again.

And just like a trail in the woods becomes more defined, the more you use it, the connections in your brain become stronger and more efficient. What was once a barely visible trail becomes a clear path.

And eventually, with enough consistent practice, it turns into something more like a superhighway. This is what's happening in your brain.

When you repeatedly practice a character, voice, or accent, your brain is physically changing to make that skill easier and more automatic. The connections between brain cells, the neuronsactually strengthen their bonds.

It's as if they're learning to communicate more efficiently each time you practice. There's also something called myelination happening. Okay, what is that, Marco? Myelination is a production of myelin.

Myelin is like this fatty insulation on the axon. Remember the axon, the long tail off that cell body? Think of it like this.

If your neural pathway is an electrical wire carrying signals, myelin is like the rubber insulation that wraps around it. This insulation helps the electrical signal travel faster and more efficiently.

When you practice consistently, your brain adds more of this insulation to the pathways you use most often. Side note, when you hear the term gray matter, they're talking about cell bodies because it doesn't have that white fattiness on it.

So there's gray matter and white matter. White matter are the axons with myelin on it. That's just a side tidbit for you, a little extra for you. You're welcome.

Anyway, going back to it, this is why that character voice that once needed a lot of concentration on your part eventually becomes second nature. Your brain has physically remodeled itself to make that particular skill more efficient. And here's the really cool part.

Unlike actual trails that can be reclaimed by nature if unused, these neural pathways tend to stick around for much longer. Even if you don't use that particular voice technique for months.

When you return to it, you'll find it comes back much faster than when you first learned it. Your brain remembers the path, even if it's gotten a little overgrown. Remember the saying, it's like riding a bike? There it is. Okay.

There's actually a study done from Harvard on musicians brains and how they're different from non musicians brains. It's an actual paper. I'll put a link down in the show notes. I'm going to read it because I wrote out a review of this, so bear with me here.

How musicians brains are different from a young age.

Musicians develop complex motor and auditory skills like translating musical notations into precise finger movements while simultaneously monitoring how it sounds. They practice these skills intensively throughout their lives.

They discovered significant differences in gray matter volume across several brain regions, specifically in areas responsible for motor control, auditory processing, and visual spatial abilities. Here's what makes that fascinating for you. These brain differences aren't just random.

They're often specific to the musician's instrument and correlate with their training history, suggesting that these changes result from skill acquisition rather than causing it.

In fact, researchers who studied children before and after musical training found that those who practiced an instrument showed greater improvements in both motor skills and auditory abilities, with corresponding changes in brain regions responsible for these functions.

The research shows that musicians differ from non musicians in many ways, with most differences occurring in the neurobiological realm rather than in gross anatomy. These differences seem related to the early age they began training its intensity and duration.

Think of it like when you practice a piece of music repeatedly.

You're not just training your fingers, you're physically reshaping your brain to become more efficient at processing sound, coordinating movements, and integrating what you see, hear, and feel. This is neuroplasticity in action, your brain adapting to meet the demands you place on it. Okay, I think you got it.

So that's a wrap for the first episode of the Cognitive Performer. I want to sincerely thank you for joining me on this scientific journey through the incredible world of neuroplasticity.

I know we covered some complex concepts today, but understanding how our brains physically change with practice is fundamental to everything we'll explore in future episodes. Whether you're a voice actor, a musician, or anyone looking to enhance your mental resilience, I hope you found something valuable to take away.

I'll be back with a new episode next month where we'll dive into the science of performance anxiety. Until then, remember that every practice session is literally reshaping your brain for the better.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share with your friends who might benefit. And of course, I'd love to hear your questions or topic suggestions for future episodes. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time.