Review: The Brain That Changes Itself

The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science by Norman Doidge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the book about the plasticity in the brain. Our brains are not static - and we are able to impact how we think, react and feel ourselves.

I found some of the claims in the book to be too strong like the good benefits of the psychoanalysis or negative impact of watching pornographic content on brains. But when taken to the extremes - both good or bad - there are very interesting stories and personal anecdotes that exemplify how our brain is impacted.

Take love for example. Anyone who has been in love, will probably not argue that it changes one's brain. Two brains in love go through a period of heightened plasticity, allowing them to mold to each other and shape each other’s intentions and perceptions. And if we get separated from our love object, our brains undergo unlearning process - a hard and time consuming adaptation of the brain to the new reality.

Sometimes, our brains maps can merge two separate phenomena into one, counterproductively. For example, associating sex with violence. Or relationship with abusive behavior. Solving it requires rewiring brain maps by psychoanalysis or similar.

Or take pain. The brain decides how much endorphins to use to quell pain we experience. Soldiers during the war report of not feeling any pain when they are seriously wounded until they are out of battlefield. Their brains only allow the pain signals when the immediate threat is gone. Mother soothing her hurt child helps the child’s brain to turn pain volume down.

Although many experiments, studies and stories in the book are negative per se, I liked the overall positive message of the book. We are able to influence our brain plasticity (which is deteriorating with age) by providing a constant challenge to it. Studying foreign languages, solving complex puzzles, mastering new physical activities, acquiring a new career, having a regular physical exercise, learning new dances - have all shown to have a positive effect on people having statistically less Alzheimer, sharper memory and better focus in older age.

Not a news really, but obsessions and worries are also possible to target - by literally "rewiring" the brain, making it focus on something else, something positive and pleasure-giving. Anyone working on any personal obsessions or worries can attest that it is, at times, very hard - but possible, with dedication, practice and discipline.

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