While learning may enhance one's overall well-being for the greater good, a new study is suggesting that picking up a new skill may not only increase someone's knowledge, but also structurally change certain neurons.

According to research published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists studied rats and observed the creatures as they reached for a food pellet and grabbed it, which is not an easy feat for a rodent.

The researchers found acquiring this knowledge significantly altered the structure of brain cells, as they sprouted 22 percent more dendritic spines that connected them to motor neurons.

The scientists suggest that these new findings negate all previous research that suggested learning only occurred in one region.

"I think it's fair to say that in the past it was generally believed that a whole cortical region would change when learning occurred in that region, that a large group of neurons would show a fairly modest change in overall structure," said Dr. Mark H. Tuszynski, who is also director of the Center for Neural Repair at the UC San Diego and a neurologist at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Health System.

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