Norman Doidge

An introduction to the science of neuroplasticity recounts the case stories of patients with mental limitations or brain damage whose seemingly inalterable conditions were successfully treated or even cured through treatments that involved the thought re-alteration of brain structure.

Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

The Brain that Changes Itself

I don't know if I was just not the intended audience, but for the most part this book felt too long and unfulfilling. I did enjoy many of the stories and proofs of brain plasticity, but the book felt like a chore in the short term. The author took particular pains to add excruciating detail on the sexual plasticity brain portions where it was not needed, which was a strange choice. I think this book could've done with some editing and chopping of the rather boring bits. It didn't weave together well for me. Perhaps for a neurologist it would be a better read.

BC Hark

matej yangwao

** spoiler alert **
           Neuroplasticity of brain seems good and also curse what's we don't want to see to happen. Remapping what's your brain will able to do and will do is seems matter of imagination and perception. 

Seems like visualization techniques can be as powerful as return you back to life after traumatic event.

Seems quite exciting topic of course 

After few chapters books tells you than even after uneventful situations, your brain can learn get back and fight paralysis which is amazing hope in some sort of down situations 

>It will replace her vestibular apparatus and send balance signals to her brain from her tongue

>that the human libido is not a hardwired, invariable biological urge but can be curiously fickle, easily altered by our psychology and the history of our sexual encounters.

>Sexual plasticity may seem to have reached its height in those who have had many different partners, learning to adapt to each new lover, but think of the plasticity required of the aging married couple with good sex life. They looked very different in their twenties when they met than they do in their sixties, yet their libidos adjust, so they remain attracted.

>Animals exposed to a complex pattern, such as a melody of six tones, will not simply link together six different map regions but will develop a region that encodes the entire melody. These more complex melody maps obey the same plastic principles as maps for single tones.

>Children are needy and typically develop passionate attachments to their parents. If the parent is warm, gentle, and reliable, the child will frequently develop a taste for that kind of relationship later on; if the parent is disengaged, cool, distant, self-involved, angry, ambivalent, or erratic, the child may seek out an adult mate who has similar tendencies.

>Whereas many neuroplasticians work to help people develop or recover skills — to read, move, or overcome learning disabilities — Ramachandran uses plasticity to reconfigure the content of the mind. He shows that we can rewire our brains through comparatively brief, painless treatments that use imagination and perception.

>When Ramachandran put a drop of warm water on Tom's cheek, he felt a warm trickle move down his cheek and also down his phantom limb.

Keven Wang

Meet the ninety year old doctor, who, with the aid of a few simple exercises, is still practising medicine. His is just one of the incredible stories brain expert Norman Doidge tells as he reveals our brain's remarkable ability to repair itself through the power of positive thought. In The Brain That Changes Itself Doidge introduces us to the fascinating stories at the cutting edge of the brain science and the emerging discipline of 'neuroplasticity' . We meet the stroke victim who unable to feed or dress himself learned to move and talk again, the woman with a rare brain condition that left her feeling as though she was perpetually falling but who through a series of exercises rewired her brain to overcome this and the maverick scientists over turning centuries of assumptions about the brain and it's capacity for renewal. Doidge shows how their incredible work is helping the blind to see, the deaf to hear and causing Nobel laureates to rethink our model of the brain. This remarkable book will leave you with a sense of wonder at the capabilities of the human brain and the power to change which lies within all of us.

The Brain That Changes Itself

Corey price

Andy Sporring

weli 

Vivian Lin

A new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychoanalyst Doidge traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed--people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.--From publisher description.

The Brain that Changes Itself Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

Reviews