The Brain That Changes Itself

In the article “This is your Brain…” by Roy Wood and Patrick Barker is about understanding the brain and the limitations that the brain has. That the brain controls our body and everything that happens in our body. That there is so much more that the brain does then we ever give it credit for. The brain has three important things the bad attributes, the neocortex and limbic system, and the manages energy.

“The Human Brain”, by myPerspectives, is an informative article that claims that the brain is a complex organ that is truly impressive. The brain is a key part of the central nervous system, that controls the entire body’s activities, to simple things such as breathing. These actions are fired through neurons, that quickly travel through the spinal cord. Surprisingly, the brain transmits these messages at an unimaginable rate, at 150 miles per hour, through 85 billion cells, called neurons. These neurons can form up to 10,000 synapses, or connections to each other. By itself, the brain can create billions of synapses, which change the structure of the brain every time new information is learned. However, there is still much that scientists

Many researchers have sought out an explanation for the mysteries hidden within our brain and how it operates. Recent studies have shown that the brain functions more as a muscle allowing it to continue to grow or contract. If these studies prove to be true, this could forever change how people interact or associate with their brains.

In Eric Kandel's Aplysia experiment, Kandel showed that a slug lost sensitivity in its gills, after repeated contact to which Carr states "the brain...change[s] with experience, circumstance, and need". Both, Kandel's and Merzenich's, experiments lead to the same conclusion of the physical body adapting in real-time to the environment. Carr briefly writes how a man named Bernstein regained movement in his hand and leg after damaging his brain which regulated movement and how through the use of technology analyzing neural activity, Carr tells how violinists had increased cortical areas of their right hand compared to nonmusicians, and compared to their own left cortical areas. Carr's final example for the brain's plasticity is with Pascual-Leone's experiment. Pascual-Leone mapped the brain activity of a group of people playing certain notes on a piano, and a group imagining themselves playing the notes. He concluded that their brains had both changed in response to the experiment, both in playing, and imagining playing. Pascual-Leone's work showed that the human brain can change itself neurologically without physical activity. Carr summarizes, "We become, neurologically, what we think". Carr asserts through these scientific experiments that not only were Freud, J.Z. Young, and William James, correct , but "the adult brain...is not just plastic but...'massively plastic.'" Carr

However, psychologists have also found a counter-argument for localization of brain function; and that is brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is the idea that if one part of the brain stops functioning, another part will take over that role. The idea of brain plasticity has been around for hundreds of years. The ancient Greeks accepted the idea, believing that one could train their mind, just like training a body. Around the time of Galileo, the idea was dismissed, as scientists began to see the world mechanically, with each object/organ being

Siegel provides enlightening guidance in his chapter through using clearly explained analogies, metaphors, diagrams, emerging neuroscience research, and spiritual wisdom. In Part I of this novel, the author primarily focuses on the structure and bountiful abilities of the brain, such as neuroplasticity, “the term used to describe the capacity for creating new neural connections and growing new neurons in response to experience” (5). These new neural connections make way for change, by not only strengthening the areas that one may be weak in, but by also learning how to make better and more conscious choices when faced with turbulence. In Part II, Siegel explores the real-world accounts of this turbulence and how patients are able to utilize mindsight to change how they focus their attention by finding a

The Brain That Changes Itself is an informative and an educational book was written by Canadian Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, writer, and researcher Norman Doidge, who delivers a dramatic change message about the plasticity of the brain; how the brain changes itself. "The Brain That Changes Itself" is a chain of excellent case studies of individuals who have undergone a brain deficit of some kind and examines different types of brain deficits from simple sensory; auditory and visual to complex deficits; missing brain regions. The book recounts neuroscientific advances on how neuroplasticity does not limit the individual to predefined neural limitations and that our way of thinking, as well as the activities that we perform every day,

The book The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, written by Dr. Norman Doidge, provides different intimate experiences from people that received help through neuroplasticity exercises. Each story describes how the brain is able to readjust itself. Brain plasticity can physically modify the brain by uncovering rewarding and tragic experiences. Changes in the brain can also occur as we age. Throughout the reading I learned several knowledgeable facts I did not know before. Some being the transcription and template functions, and the effects memory and learning have on the transformation of the brain over time. Another was Jordan Grafman’s research on the four kinds of plasticity; map expansion, sensory reassignment, compensatory masquerade, and mirror region takeover.

In chapter eight of Siegel’s book, we are introduced to the curious neuroplasticity mechanisms. Neuroplasticity is defined as “the ability of the brain to change its structure in response to experience” (Siegel, 2012, p. 8-1). What a beautiful and profound ability! Our brains are not rigid structures that come pre-assembled and ready for use. Our

Cortical plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change organize itself through the experiences, changes in our lifestyles, and interactions with our environment. Our brains are able to reorganize and re-wire itself depending on our needs. At one point, it was believed the brain can only really change through development, but has recently been disproven. Neuroscientists coined the term of cortical plasticity because of the brain’s ability to be molded like plastic. Neuroplasticity can be seen through a variety of learning situations that involve a variety of unique circumstances.

Also, he brings into mind if brain plasticity could help individuals with a cognitive disorder such as schizophrenia. Can brain mapping help? According to Sage Journal; Imagination, Cognition, and Personality: a talk on prosopagnosia presented at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, in October 2013 by Dr. Kirsten Dalrymple of the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. A person could train herself to recognize faces, but when she stopped training, she loses the ability. The use of developmental design and other methods such as ceasing practice if plasticity could work and performing imaging studies in addition to the case study is important because it can help outline the boundaries and restrictions to neuroplasticity as well as determine the rate and the reason for an area of brain degradation that had previously improved. And if not, how long does the brain take to deteriorate or

The brain ― it is able to receive and interpret information as well as to send signals according to the particular stimulus. Within the brain, there lies the basal ganglia. They are cell groups found deep in the brain hemispheres that are involved motor control.  Its disruption is responsible for movement disorders.

It is clear at this point that we are irrevocably tied to the 3-lb of strange computational material found within our skulls. The brain is utterly alien to us, and yet our personalities, hopes, fears and aspirations all depend on the integrity of this biological tissue. How do we know this? Because when the brain changes, we change. Our personality, decision-making, risk-aversion, the capacity to see colours or name animals – all these can change, in very specific ways, when the brain is

Franz Joseph Gall created the first comprehensive theory of brain localization in 1796. Phrenology is a pseudoscientific theory that asserts an individual’s personality and mental capacities can be determined by the shape of their skull (Cooter, 1984). “Organology” was the original term that Gall used to describe his science; it was Gall’s follower, T.I.M Forster, who coined the term phrenology (Van Wyhe, 1999). Gall’s contemporary, Joseph Franz Spurzheim, was responsible for the dissemination of Gall’s ideas to the United Kingdom and the United States (Selby, 1993). Gall inspired many “egotistical” men to promulgate phrenology, and it “attracted such men because of its promise of superlative intellectual authority with minimal effort” (Van Wyhe, 1999). Phrenology

Traditionally neuroscientists believed that when you were born, after a short period of critical development just after birth, brain plasticity was fixed. Over 100 years ago Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, was the first to famously suggest that the brain could actually modify its structural and functional organisation post childhood in response to environmental stimuli saying “Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor of his own brain”. However lacking in sufficient evidence, until recently the majority of neuroscientists have believed in the staticity of cognitive function. It was in the 1970’s and 80’s that controversial animal tests on monkeys infamously known as the ‘Silver Spring Monkeys’, confirmed the notion that the brain, or more specifically the central nervous system, was able to change its structure and function, creating new, more advantageous neural pathways for processing without the help of medication or surgery but as a response to environmental stimuli.