I remember seeing a cartoon tacked on the wall of an engineering classroom. Beneath the image of goofy looking guy was caption that said something like, "four years ago I couldn't even spell engineer, and now I are one!" Well, it wasn't that long ago that nobody outside academic and related research knew much about neuroplasticity, let alone knew how to spell it. Even now it doesn't scream at us from bold headlines or the crawl on CNN, but it isn't confined to dusty academic journals either.
Sharon Begley is a science writer for the Wall Street Journal. She's one "mainstream" journalist who has grabbed hold of the plasticity concept with hands skilled at explaining complex stuff in an entertaining and informative way. I just finished reading her latest book on neuroplasticity, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain.
Good read. Begley reviews lots of neuroscience research in the context of a meeting between the scientists and the Dali Lama. Although Begley's focus is on research, she gives us hope that we can all benefit from harnessing our own brain's neuroplasticity.
In discussing the many circumstances under which the adult brain displays neuroplasticity, I hope I have not give the impression that neuroplasticity is an occasional property of the brain, one trotted out in response to trauma such a strokes or blindness or amputation, or to extraordinary demand placed on it such as mastering a musical instrument or engaging in intense mental training. Those are indeed circumstances when neuroplasticity steps up and show what it can do. But they are the only ones neuroscientists have looked at. The search for other demons on the brain that call forth its power of neuroplasticity is only beginning.
I'm down with that, especially as a practitioner of the Feldenkrais Method. I'd bet Moshe Feldenkrais would devour Begley's book and the ideas inside.
Jonah Lehrer gives us more proof that neuroplasticity is escaping the lab in Mind Games. This is framed with video games that hint at taking advantage of neuroplasticity for perhaps its largest potential market - baby boomers. Nintendo has its big toe in the water with its Brain Age software for its handheld. (This article didn't mention it, but the Nintendo Wii is also gain favor with seniors and boomers.)
If Nintendo is testing the waters, PositScience has jumped into the deep end and hopes to lap everyone else. Developed by legendary researcher Mike Merzenich, PositScience is already marketing stuff and plans many more products.
What's really refreshing in all this stuff for me is the focus using activity to influence the nervous system, instead of relying exclusively on a chemical approach.
Only time will tell if Merzenich's optimism is justified, and brain-fitness programs become a conventional medical treatment. "Consumers are programmed to trust drugs," he says. "Exercise seems frivolous." But if Merzenich is right, then we've been all wrong: The best way to keep a youthful mind may be to keep on playing games.
So I suppose all this means something like if we go looking for our heart's desire, we don't have to look any further than our own brains. Or maybe I'm thinking of something else.