Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

Question

Why do we never lose certain skills we have learned, even if we haven’t practiced them for a long time. like for example riding a bicycle, and we lose some, like a new language we learned 10 years ago but can’t remember anything about it now?

In: 5857

Answer 1

Different types of skills are stored in different parts of the brain. Alzheimer’s patients can lose their ability to speak or to comprehend what’s being spoken to them, yet they can still recall full lyrics to songs they’ve known their whole lives (yet for less time than how to speak). This is because the sounds of the words are what they are recalling with the song lyrics and not so much their meaning.