‘Plastic’ brain transforms itself by Lynda Hurst-For centuries, science regarded the human brain as a machine, with every component in its place, every task assigned. If a part was broken or worn out, that was that. It couldn’t be replaced: its function was permanently lost. That was also wrong. Injured or dysfunctional cells and circuits can indeed be regenerated and rewired; the location of a given function can, astonishingly, move from one place to another. Doidge presents extraordinary case histories of learning disorders being reversed, IQs rising, elderly brains replenishing themselves, blind people learning how to see, autistic children starting to relate to the world, and individuals with crippling depression and anxiety moving off the life-ruining treadmill. Plasticity exists in all areas of the brain: in sensory, motor, and cognitive processing, in the part that regulates instincts (hunger, thirst, sex) and in the part dealing with emotion and anxiety. It even exists in the spinal cord. “Neuroplastic therapy can open and redirect pathways to reorganize the brain so that people recover more fully after trauma,” Doidge writes. It’s known that older people who do a lot of intensive mental learning develop less Alzheimer’s disease. Seniors can benefit from doing crossword puzzles, but learning something entirely new, another language, say, is infinitely more effective. 

I myself had bleeding in the brain about ten years ago. I had memory issues and I had rehabilitation for this. It took years to get my ‘working memory’ fully functional again. There came to a point in my life when I said I could be doing simple brain building exercises, forever, or do something with a more practical application and interesting, like study languages, playing chess etc. I am better than ever now, and am certain chess and language learning played a huge role. I do not need to read a scientific study to believe the brain is plastic, I have experienced it for myself.  Learn a language and your brain and life will change The only limits you have are those you tell yourself. So stop telling yourself, ‘I am not good with languages’. Have confidence and courage.  

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