What is Hebbian Learning?

PRESENTER: What is
Hebbian learning,

and why is it associated
with repetition learning?

Imagine you've got two neurons,
neurons that are involved

in you hitting a baseball.

Hebbian learning is
pretty straightforward.

It's based on the principle that
if this neuron fires and then

this neuron fires, then
the neural connection

between the two neurons is
strengthened, making them

more likely to fire as a pair.

Conversely, if this
neuron fires now

but the second
neuron never fires,

then the neural connection
is not strengthened,

and thus these two
neurons are not

likely to fire together again.

That led Donald Hebb,
one of Canada's greatest

neuroscientists, to propose the
statement that neurons that fire

together wire together.

Think of that in the context
of practicing a skill.

Each time you execute the skill,
neurons are firing together,

and those connections
are strengthened.

This is actually why it's so
hard to change poor technique.

The more you practice
with poor technique,

the more those connections
get strengthened, thus

making it harder to change.