Build adaptive capacity: thrive under pressure, embrace growth through difficulty
Resilience is the brain's capacity to recover from stressors (bouncing back to baseline). Antifragility goes further— it describes systems that strengthen from variability and challenges, like neural plasticity where manageable stress builds stronger pathways.
Breaks under stress. Like catastrophic interference—new learning erases old memories.
Example: Single point of failure, rigid systems, no redundancy
Returns to baseline. Like H.M. preserving skill learning post-hippocampal lesion.
Example: Double dissociation—MTL damage impairs declarative, spares procedural
Gains from stress. Like pattern separation in dentate gyrus avoiding interference.
Example: Complementary learning—hippocampus fast encoding, neocortex stable generalization