eli5 why do we “forget” long practiced skills after a period of time of not using said skills? and how can we regain those skills

Question

i noticed that after the holidays my math plummeted and teachers told me its because of the break i took… why does this happen and how can i regain those skills acquired prior to the break

In: 356

Answer 1

In your brain, you have your neurons, kinda like the stores of information and tasks. Eg put left leg forward. Or a differential equation. When you practice something, the connection becomes stronger (or faster) because it builds up myelin in your brain, which wraps the connections between neurons, acting like insulation and greatly speeding up the connection.

The more you practice, the more myelin you build up and the faster you can do something (this is the more technical version of muscle memory).

Myelin and the neurons are biological. So the old adage is use it or lose it. Like muscles. If you don’t practice, the biological components break down over time because your body is trying to figure out what it needs and doesn’t so is constantly ‘pruning’ your brain.

You regain the skill by practicing again… the good news is one you have a skill, it doesn’t take as long to rebuild the myelin lost before (in general). And you’ll start to feel ‘sharper’ and ‘faster’ and eventually if you build up so much myelin you can do the task without even ‘thinking’ about it. In the brain, muscle memory is essentially myelin memory (eli5).