# do nerves outside your brain "learn"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 26, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956 "2006-03-26T13:30:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/1 "2006-03-26T13:30:20Z")

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How do nerves in the brain and outside the brain differ? If you’re learning to sprint fast right out of the starting blocks, is the learning all located in the brain? (Leaving aside muscle development, etc. needed to get better at this sort of thing.)

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**Author:** ![athelas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/2 "2006-03-26T14:22:38Z")

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If the nerves are outside your body, you’ve got bigger problems 🙂

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [March 26, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/3 "2006-03-26T22:07:17Z")

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This is obviously mistitled.

The answer seems to hinge on what you mean by learn. I think that what we call “muscle learning” is very likely the building of synapses that enhance certain neural pathways. Since that also seems to be what brain learning amounts to, I think it is fair to say that nerves outside the brain learn. Presumably in a much more limited way, but then there are fewer.

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**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/4 "2006-03-27T09:54:53Z")

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Motor skills…

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**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/5 "2006-03-27T11:40:16Z")

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Yeah, I think nervous complexity has an awful lot to do with this sort of thing. For a motor nerve leading into your muscles, there isn’t much chance to make new connections with other nerves to do learning - it’s connected to another nerve on one side and with a muscle on the other. I figure it’d just be kind of like a wire to pass on whatever nerve signals there were, both ways.

In the spinal cord, on the other hand, there are probably enough nerves packed together to do some rudimentary (or not quite so rudimentary) learning.

that’s my $0.02 worth.

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**Author:** ![drhess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/94ad74/32.png) [@drhess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drhess)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-nerves-outside-your-brain-learn/349956/6 "2006-03-27T15:16:54Z")

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> [@ParentalAdvisory](#):
>
> Motor skills…

And…? Are some motor skills “residing” in the nerves outside the brain? That’s the question.