Donald O. Hebb
Neurons that fire together wire together.
Canadian neuropsychologist whose work linked learning, behavior and the mechanisms of the brain.
Neurons that fire together tend to wire together.
Who they were
Donald Hebb gave learning a physical home in the brain. He proposed that when neurons activate together repeatedly, the link between them strengthens — a simple idea that became the foundation of how we understand memory, plasticity and the shaping power of experience.
Famous books
What they left on the shelf
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Best known as a theorist — their ideas shaped the techniques of those who followed.
Their big idea
Hebbian Theory
Donald Hebb proposed that learning lives in the connections between neurons: repeated co-activation strengthens the link, so groups of cells that fire together come to represent a perception, thought or action.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Hebb — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.