Neural Knowing

Neural Foundations of Learning and Change

Neural Knowing examines how learning and behavior change occur in the brain — and how this understanding can be used to design and improve real learning and behavior change systems.

The work builds on more than 25 years of neuroscience research by JW Wilson and colleagues, who proposed a central principle: deep learning and lasting behavior change require measurable physiological change in the brain. Without biological adaptation, learning remains temporary or conceptual rather than enduring and functional.

We supported the design and completion of JW’s 750+ page book, Cracking the Learning Code: The Science That Is Transforming How the World Learns, Motivates, and Changes Behavior, along with the foundational components of its learning systems.

Scientific Foundation

Current Phase

Neural Knowing is an emerging institute dedicated to understanding how learning actually works in the brain — and to applying that understanding to education, organizations, coaching, and real-world performance. At this early stage, our work is centered on shaping the scientific framework and refining how the findings are communicated.

At its core, Neural Knowing is guided by a simple but often overlooked question: Is this learning experience neurologically capable of deep learning and behavior change? Rather than focusing on content, engagement, or delivery methods, we focus on the biological conditions required for learning to consolidate, endure, and transform behavior.

The Scientific Lineage

Most learning systems are evaluated by what they deliver. Neural Knowing evaluates learning by what the brain can do with it. The work centers on a neuroscience-informed learning framework — a set of core biological mechanisms that govern:

• how attention is earned

• how memory is encoded and consolidated

• how stress and brain state shape learning

• how behavior adapts and transfers into real contexts

From this framework emerges a diagnostic lens for understanding why learning initiatives succeed, stall, or fail — regardless of format or setting.

The Core Idea

What This Makes Possible

Neural Knowing is developing an integrated system that enables learning professionals to:

• Understand learning and behavior change at the neurobiological level

• Apply the same neuroscience principles coherently across courses, organizations, and coaching

• Diagnose learning initiatives to identify neurological bottlenecks

• Redesign learning with clarity about what to fix first — and why

The goal is not another methodology or content library, but a shared neural language for learning design, evaluation, behavior change, and transformation.

An Invitation

If you design learning, lead change, or support human development — and you’re interested in a neuroscience-grounded way of understanding why learning works or doesn’t — you’re welcome to be part of the conversation.

Neural Knowing is being built carefully, intentionally, and in service of real-world impact.

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