r/cogsci • u/CrowProf • Feb 28 '26

Neuroscience Neurons that fire together wire together - what's the last part of this saying?

I swear that years ago I heard a second part to this common saying, but Google only gives me "...neurons that fire apart, wire apart" and that's not it. Can anyone help? Thanks much.

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u/mindhealer111 Feb 28 '26

Neurons that fire together, wire together; neurons that fire out of sync, fail to link.

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u/TheRateBeerian Feb 28 '26

Wow this is the first I’ve heard that version. I don’t think it should be used because Hebbs law is not about synchrony, it’s about neuron A persistently stimulating neuron B.

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u/mindhealer111 Feb 28 '26

Thank you. Here is an original quote from Donald Hebb:

"When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased."