“Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.” —Oliver Sacks
The discovery that our thoughts can change the structure and function of our brains—even into old age—is the most important breakthrough in neuroscience in four centuries. In this revolutionary look at the brain, bestselling author, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge, M.D., introduces both the brilliant scientists championing this new science of neuroplasticity and the astonishing progress of the people whose lives they’ve transformed. Introducing principles we can all use as well as a riveting collection of case histories—stroke patients cured, a woman with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, learning and emotional disorders overcome, IQs raised, and aging brains rejuvenated—The Brain That Changes Itself has “implications for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history” (The New York Times).
“Readers will want to read entire sections aloud and pass the book on to someone who can benefit from it….Links scientific experimentation with personal triumph in a way that inspires awe.” —The Washington Post
Excellent balance of case history, theory, and empirical research This is one of the most interesting nonfiction books that I have *ever* read. I found the book fascinating, but lest that be chalked up to my being a psychologist, my husband the computer scientist found it fascinating, too.Scientists used to believe that the brain was relatively fixed and unchanging — some of them still believe that — but recent research shows that the brain is much more mutable than biologists, psychologists, physicians (and any other scientists who studied…
The Leopard Can Change His Spots Neuroplasticity has recently become a bit of a buzzword. Long the preserve of neuroscientists, this is one of a number of new books on the topic written for the public.I recently reviewed Sharon Begley’s superb book – Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – and this one is in a similar vein. Though it is rather different from Sharon’s book in which the main focus was on the changes wrought in the brains of meditators, while this one looks at the extraordinary responses of the brain to…