The Brain that Changes Itself

Madman

R4 DVD

We love docos at Synergy but most of them do tend to be about nature, technology and history, that’s fine, we love those subjects but it is great to see a documentary which is totally different and very thought provoking. Psychology is such a fascinating field and theories of the development of the human brain even more so.

Traditionally the brain was seen as an organ that developed like most others in the human body, when it reached a certain age it was pretty well unchangeable. This view was the orthodox scientific view since the very earliest days of medicine and meant that when a brain injury occurred little could be done and sadly little was attempted. It also meant that it was believed that when a person started to lose focus later in life there was little that could be done about that either, so many elderly people were left mentally decaying with little action taken. Medications and other forms of interventions were sometimes attempted but with too few successful results.

The Brain that Changes Itself documents a new paradigm that has arisen in brain research known as brain plasticity or neuroplasticity. Essentially this means that the brain can be retrained (not without some hardwork) if damaged and if it is losing focus. If standard pathways to the brain are not working, then new ones can be formed and through a range of techniques the brain can be modified to use its many unused regions to “take up the slack”. The example given in the book is that if the brain uses major highways, if these are blocked or damaged, we can take backroads or even create a cross country path to get where need to go. The more these new paths are used the more successful they become. These studies began in the Sixties and have had immense changes to the way in which stroke victims and those with brain injuries or damage are treated.

The medical establishment was slow to catch on due to the sheer radicalness of the proposal. The concept of the static brain was the foundation of the basic approach to so many diseases that this new paradigm, with wildly successful results, came as quite a shock.

At the same time this discovery has far more significant ramifications that purely in the medical field. If the brain can be trained it can be kept in an optimum state and the documentary discusses a range of techniques for keeping the brain “taut and trim” even into old age. Such techniques can also be used for those with mind fog caused by medication, learning difficulties and forms of autism. There are now a wide range of brain training programs available in print, on DVD and online which can be used and have proven effectiveness, rather than using medication it does seem exercising the brain like a muscle is the way to go. There are now schools using these techniques to assist children with learning disorders and many people are using online courses to keep their minds in shape. This is a superb DVD which educates us about the latest research in brain plasticity and challenges us to use our brains – “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it”. It also includes the sequel Changing your Mind.

The Brain that Changes Itself is also available as a book, written by Norman Doidge and published by Penguin, it was a New York Times bestseller.

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This review will appear in Volume 4 No. 3 of the digital and print edition of Synergy.

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