The Brain that Changes Itself discussion

The brain never ages if you know how to feed it the right food!

Doidge makes it easy to read the science by interlayering w nice stories.
The implications of neuroplasticity for things like stroke and OCD are huge. One small example: the Sea Gypsies of Burma live in/on the ocean. They have learned to change their eye structure so that their undersea vision is not distorted, 22% change in corneal curve. NOT genetics, simply remarkable.

Websterdavid3 wrote: "Doidge makes it easy to read the science by interlayering w nice stories.
The implications of neuroplasticity for things like stroke and OCD are huge. One small example: the Sea Gypsies of Burma..."

David, Thanks for you comment. I am writing an article about creativity and am doing vision board workshops in LA and Malibu in an effort to inspire people's creativity and grown their brain cells.

Absolutely fascinating book.

The one of the best three books I read in 2011. I read 109 in total in 2011.

Absolutely wonderful. I never think "oh this is too difficult for me" or "I'm not smart enough for this" anymore. I just think "I can't do it yet, but my brain will adjust if I keep trying".

I read this book several years ago and really enjoyed it as well. I appreciated how easily the writer made the scientific concepts easy to understand. As a massage therapist, it really has opened the door into a new way of thinking in my work.

After reading that book, I went on to read other books concerning the brain, nervous system and pain management. It's incredible the changes that are coming in the field of manual therapy and hopefully, my colleagues will eventually follow suit.

Fascinating book! Working with the brain's plasticity is going to be the pathway to many cures and innovations. I am particularly excited about the implications for our education system.

Websterdavid3 wrote: "Doidge makes it easy to read the science by interlayering w nice stories.
The implications of neuroplasticity for things like stroke and OCD are huge. One small example: the Sea Gypsies of Burma..."

just found this... is it possible to get a copy of hyour paper on creativity? if you think it was a good one?

Any wrote: "The one of the best three books I read in 2011. I read 109 in total in 2011."

Curious how that changes your life. i can give stories,but the overall for me is : i can change major habits/ways of being/ perceptual patterns IF i am clear, use good methjods, and don't sabotage myself; having others to help makes a big difference.

you?

Alisha wrote: "Fascinating book and amazing implications for treating and maybe one day curing horribly degenerative diseases of both mind and body. Our grandmothers were right when they said "mind over matter" ..."

heartmath.org has a booklet about improving ones golf game-- their focus is emotional coherence-- heart and head connection-- works i think.

R.K. wrote: "I read this book several years ago and really enjoyed it as well. I appreciated how easily the writer made the scientific concepts easy to understand. As a massage therapist, it really has opened t..."

Do you deliberately use the "oxytocin is the means to forget the most recent love" from Doidge? If people want to operationalize that, good advice is "touch a lot", which is your profession. no?

R.K. wrote: "I read this book several years ago and really enjoyed it as well. I appreciated how easily the writer made the scientific concepts easy to understand. As a massage therapist, it really has opened t..."

you probably know already, but heartmath.org started w math test anxiety-- one can learn best when there are no ruffles, when heart and brain are "coherent" . Fun, easy, practical stuff backing up Doidge's analysis

Websterdavid wrote: "Do you deliberately use the "oxytocin is the means to forget the most recent love" from Doidge? If people want to operationalize that, good advice is "touch a lot", which is your profession. no?"

Haha, that's a good one! I guess I can think about marketing to forlorn lovers!

What I meant by my statement is that the information in Doidge's book reiterates what I am learning about general neuroscience. When I massage someone, I no longer believe that I am doing anything at all to the muscles and fascia in the body.

Rather, I am affecting the brain/nervous system via the skin and that is what is creating the effects people come for massage.

Absolutely enthralled by the chapter about substituting one sense for another - the chair with pin points laid out like a screen on the back so that people can "see images" and then the same concept applied to the tongue with electrical impulses. Why isn't this technology refined and used more!

I loved this book. I just finished it and am now on the search for more information and studies on neuroplasticity.

Appreciate your enthusiasm. i was just describing the amazing story he leads with-- on the father whose brain was 90% destroyed and came back to be a professor again-- to a friend who wanted to re-map her own depression.

Where does remaking the brain lead you? What makes it important to you?

and did you find some good references in the book itself?

I found this book very interesting mostly because of the behavior changing the brain physically. I have several personal/behavioral issues that I have been working on with therapists for the last several years with very little progress. The idea that the behavior is actually wiring my brain to continue the behaviors just like the rut in the snowy hill. The more I learn about the brain and the amazing things it can do the more I realize that my behaviors are quite minimal when you consider the stories in the book and that changing that wiring that I have created is completely possible.

Eliza-- without prying into personal issues, can you say more about whether this book helped you alter behaviors? how?

in the book he talks about Mezerich's bold claims to change children's behaviors and notes that the reality is not so successful.... good tempering??? or no?

For years I have tried to understand what makes people bigoted, unable to think broadly about issues but confined and locked into a rigid view of reality. This book put me on the path to finding a satisfying answer. Our brains contain our personhood recorded in our neurons. Understanding that we have some control over their generation and connection should serve as a bold warning to us. Feed your brain junk information and you will arrive at very bad decisions. We must be mindful at all times about what we pay attention to. Watch Fox News all the time to the exclusion of other media sources and you will become a Fox News sock puppet. The evidence is all around us. Biology is the answer to bigotry.

Cultural cognition plays a vital role in how people perceive threats and risks. Brain scientists have identified a portion of the brain (shall we call it the guardian of the mind) that processes all incoming information and that shuts off incoming information perceived to threaten a person's mindset.

The theory is elegant and I find this utterly fascinating because it helps answer the question that had long vexed me. What makes people bigoted? Why are so many people narrow and close minded? It is useless to try and have an intelligent discussion with some people and the basic reason turns out that information they are hearing threatens their cherished convictions. Yet this is all happening on a subliminal level. Neither the speaker nor the listener is consciously aware. Needless to say true believers are the worst of the lot. The more ignorant they are, the more bigoted they are because ignorance and bigotry are viciously intertwined. The pernicious result is you cannot educate a bigot.

Our political systems are stymied and gridlock thus ensues.

Richard wrote: "Cultural cognition plays a vital role in how people perceive threats and risks. Brain scientists have identified a portion of the brain (shall we call it the guardian of the mind) that processes al..."

Richard-- thank you, Richard! Do you have a good article or book on the processing guardian? would help me.

appreciate your returning to elucidate your point further; for some reason this one hits home well w me. Do the points below augment or disagree w your understandings?

1) When people are autonomically aroused, when they are reactive, they hear nothing.

2) Steve Duck (resedarcher on communication) says, on a good day, we hear 30-40% of what is said to us.

3) emtional core of a conversation trumps any content-- do both parties want to learn from each other, or simply change the other person?

4) i, as a practical, energy-saving technique, notice swiftly whether i am in dialogue w other(s). If not in dialogue, probably will depart a monologue/diatribe. Without judgment or response to the content of the monologue.

thank you, Richard! Do you have a good article or book on the processing guardian? would help me.