ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

BCM theory

So, imagine you have a whole bunch of jelly beans. Some of them are red, some are green, and some are blue. Now, you want to figure out which jelly beans are the most popular.

You start asking your friends which color jelly bean they like the best. They each pick a color and you write it down. After talking to a lot of friends, you notice that some colors are picked more often than others. You realize that these popular colors are the ones that everyone likes the most.

This is sort of like the BCM theory. Your brain is like a group of friends and the jelly beans are the different connections between your brain cells. Scientists study how brain cells communicate with each other when you do something, like learn a new skill or remember something new.

The BCM theory says that the connections that are used the most get stronger over time. It's kind of like how the popular jelly beans become even more popular because more people like them. In the same way, the brain cells that are used the most become stronger and more effective. This is how your brain gets better at doing things like playing a musical instrument or solving a difficult puzzle.

So, just like how you can figure out which jelly beans are the most popular by asking your friends, scientists can study the way your brain cells communicate to see which connections are getting stronger over time. And that is the basics of the BCM theory!