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The author, Carl Zimmer is a terrific writer. "Soul Made Flesh" is another terrific book about the early, 17th century, history of brain studies. It's an artful and incredibly interesting example of these brain science concepts brought to life.
The author tells compelling stories of the struggles and triumphs of both the scientists and the subjects in the evolving field of brain science. Evelyn is a world renown percussionist who went deaf at age 8 and, though it is not discussed as neuroplasticity, it is. A very interesting survey of neuroplasticity.
She trained her brain to "hear" by using her body to "touch the sound". The common thread, aside from the brain, is the eternal struggle that innovative ideas have, the constant resistance they meet and their eventual acceptance. Diodge is an interesting guide and a fine writer who takes the reader on an informative journey into a field most of us know little about.
If you find this subject interesting, I suggest you see the video,"Touch the Sound", the story of Evelyn Glennie.
When pornographers boast that they are pushing the envelope by introducing new, harder themes, what they don't say is that they must, because their customers are building up a tolerance to the content."So if you want to understand the mechanics of how you (or your beloved) got hooked, this book is useful. Single men need lots of social contact and support during the lengthy, often agonizing, withdrawal required to unhook from Internet porn use. Doidge's chapter on acquired sexual tastes is much needed for today's heavy porn users, some of whom are experiencing miserable unexpected side effects from their Internet porn habits. Unfortunately, Doidge's patients were apparently mated men, and he seems to underestimate the difficultry of withdrawal from porn addiction for single guys whose addiction has resulted in social isolation. (See "The Road To Excess" [.].) Still, Doidge's book offers hope just by virtue of explaining what has happened in guilt-free terms, and can motivate an unhappy user to face the challenge of withdrawal. He addresses familiar symptoms like desensitization to normal sex, erectile dysfunction, escalation to watching things the viewer doesn't even like just to climax, and the deterioration of relationships.Without moralizing Doidge explains that, "Pornographers promise healthy pleasure and relief from sexual tension, but what they often deliver is addiction, tolerance, and an eventual decrease in pleasure." He makes the interesting point that if mankind's attraction to porn were purely the product of millions of years of evolution, tastes would be similar and wouldn't change over time. Instead,"Hardcore pornography now explores the world of perversion, while softcore is now what hardcore was a few decades ago.
It makes you think a bit more about what makes you think the way you think. At times the book spends considerable time going through psychoanalysis sessions conducted by Norman Doidge with some of his clients and although there are lessons to be learned from that, it dilutes the overall powerful message of the book: normal adults can learn and change and achieve so much more. Mostly, the examples come from people with extreme experience, especially in the category of people who suffered brain damage as result of a heart attack or accidents. The overall progress occurs mostly out of the popular media and daily headlines, however a combination of changing of attitude in the scientific community and advances in neuroscience and technology is slowly moving up and it promises to have a significant impact on our lives. I feel the book does not dwell enough in the area of adult learning, probably because we are still yet to create a new system for education and training that is widely accepted and recognised. The great news is that adults can change the structure of the brain mimicking the young children and learn new skills through practice and powerful reward/punishment training regime. To his credit, it makes you think how many learned experience are deep down there in our mind limiting your potential and that could be "un-learned" following a system to free us from those limitations and make us better persons. After that, the plasticity is reduced, but not eliminated.
Are we born with a brain with empty memory slots and pre-determined capability that is just filled up with memories and lessons as we go through life. We know this, but the extent to which we can achieve success is far beyond what we normally believe. The book does not describe the system, other than to say it can be done and cite a few pioneers in the field that do this through private institutions (Mezernich, Edward Taub, etc)The book arrives to similar conclusions with other researchers when talking about achieving mastery through practice. This is a positive book; it makes a very good read without using complex terminology. It is remarkable though how important is the brain activity. Simple training and varied activities focused on learning new skills can keep the brain healthy until late years in life. The argument that this book puts forward is a resounding No. Our brain has plasticity upon which we can make an impression and build memories and algorithms changing the physical makeup of the brain.
We will learn more and we will extend the young adulthood until late years in life because life is asking us to do so. It is interesting to read the comments on the influence of culture on our brain architecture. If there is a theme here is that you can achieve a lot through practice. Immigrants rewire their brains and there is a lot of expensive energy going into the effort of assimilation. Freud formulated four principles of plasticity: association of neurons, psychological critical phase, transcribing memory and transference.
It is well timed as we move into a time of rapid change. It is also optimistic. During young age the brain is very plastic and through a process implanted in our genetic code and practiced millions of years cognitive functions are created in our brain, almost the same way for all of us. The major structures are determined during our younger years, after which we rapidly loose the ability to adapt to new cultures.
The author takes time to explain these principles intertwining the theory with his own personal experience as a psychoanalyst. Norman Doidge provides incredible examples of massive changes in the way our brain functions. Norman Doidge provides an unusual portrait of Sigmund Freud (unusual to me) as a precursor of neuroplasticity.
I found it to become a bit redundant in the last third of the book. It was very interesting to get a look into some of the neuroplasticity reasons for why it does what it does. I wanted more specifics into brain structure and function, but in general it is a very good book. As a professional dealing with neurology on a consistent basis, I found this book interesting and will recommend it to parents and clients. His mention and review(s) of "Fast Forward" is particularly relevant to someone in education, because I have seen firsthand what this program can do.
A remarkable book. Norman Dodge has a gift to write clearly and profoundly at the same time. He describes complex neural processes related to neuroplasticity in a vivid way.
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