rewires

Rewires is a term used to describe the process of changing connections within a system, most commonly referring to neural rewiring in the brain. It encompasses neural plasticity—the brain's capacity to modify its structure and function in response to experience, injury, development, or learning.

In the nervous system, rewiring involves synaptic plasticity (such as long-term potentiation and depression), neurite outgrowth, dendritic remodeling, and cortical remapping. These changes can occur on different time scales, from minutes to months, and can alter response patterns, sensory processing, and motor control. Rewiring underpins learning, memory formation, recovery after stroke, and adaptation to new tasks. It can be influenced by behavioral interventions, environmental enrichment, and neuromodulatory therapies.

Techniques and therapies that facilitate rewiring include intensive rehabilitation, constraint-induced movement therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation, and pharmacological agents that modulate plasticity. In education and behavior change, rewiring is often used metaphorically to describe changes in routines, habits, or cognitive strategies that reflect underlying neural changes.

In technology and engineering, rewiring refers to changing electrical connections or wiring configurations within circuits, devices, or infrastructure, often during repairs, upgrades, or redesigns. While unrelated to biological rewiring, both use the same concept of altering connections to change system function.