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

Think of a fair or something similar where you have multiple stands on a field. If you wait some time paths will form between the stands. If two stands are often visited after each other the path between them will get bigger. For example there is probably a big path from the stand selling drinks to the toilets. If you close a stand the paths to this stand will overgrow.

Your brain works similarl. The stand are your brain cells called neurons and the paths are the connections between the cells called synapses. Thinking is basically different signals traveling in between neurons. You can imagine a person walking in between stands on the fair. If you are learning something the person takes always the same path between the same stands. Your brain will adjust to this to by making the synapses between neurons often used together stronger or creating new synapses along the path. When you use the skill you just learned it’s easy because you can use a network of big well maintained paths. But if you stop using the skill your brain will stop maintaining the synapses and the paths will overgrow. Then it’s a lot harder for you to use the skill until your brain clears the path again.