By: Norman Doidge

Paperback

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An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable.

Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable.

We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed.

Doidge takes us onto terrain that might seem fantastic. We learn that our thoughts can switch our genes on and off, altering our brain anatomy. We learn how people of average intelligence can, with brain exercises, improve their cognition and perception, develop muscle strength, or learn to play a musical instrument — simply by imagining doing so.

Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

Note to the Reader     xv
Preface     xvii
A Woman Perpetually Falling...: Rescued by the Man Who Discovered the Plasticity of Our Senses     1
Building Herself a Better Brain: A Woman Labeled "Retarded" Discovers How to Heal Herself     27
Redesigning the Brain: A Scientist Changes Brains to Sharpen Perception and Memory, Increase Speed of Thought, and Heal Learning Problems     45
Acquiring Tastes and Loves: What Neuroplasticity Teaches Us About Sexual Attraction and Love     93
Midnight Resurrections: Stroke Victims Learn to Move and Speak Again     132
Brain Lock Unlocked: Using Plasticity to Stop Worries, Obsessions, Compulsions, and Bad Habits     164
Pain: The Dark Side of Plasticity     177
Imagination: How Thinking Makes It So     196
Turning Our Ghosts into Ancestors: Psychoanalysis as a Neuroplastic Therapy     215
Rejuvenation: The Discovery of the Neuronal Stem Cell and Lessons for Preserving Our Brains     245
More than the Sum of Her Parts: A Woman Shows Us How Radically Plastic the Brain Can Be     258
The Culturally Modified Brain     287
Plasticity and the Idea of Progress     313
Acknowledgments     319
Notes and References     323
Index     409

ISBN: 9781921372742
ISBN-10: 1921372745
Audience: General
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number Of Pages: 448
Published: 1st March 2010
Publisher: Scribe Publications
Dimensions (cm): 21.1 x 13.6
Weight (kg): 0.394