The Brain that Changes Itself
The Brain That Changes Itself: Personal Triumphs from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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Doidge provides an overview of what the brain can do and challenges normal assumptions of brain development after childhood.
Brain plasticity is the ability of the brain to remap itself to accommodate changes in its needs. Plasticity was developed in the shadow of a larger structuralism approach. One may not think about the differences between the two but the difference is striking in terms of potential. Structuralists would argue that the brain is formed as a child and stays consistently the same throughout ones’ life. In effect, the areas of the brain do not change their basic purpose. If an area of the brain is dedicated (mapped ) to feeling in one finger, it stays dedicated to that job throughout life. The structural approach works well for the sake of predictability and probably for the sake of normality. The brain normally remains fairly tied to its mapping.
However, the concept of plasticity maintains that the brain can change depending on its needs. Plasticity becomes most important when the brain/body connection is broken. Traumatic injury prevents the brain from receiving information from the eyes or ears can be circumvented. If a path can be established, the brain can use the information. Further, as the brain uses or fails to uses certain parts of the body, the brain devotes more or less resources to that function. The result is that the brain can be remapped.
While Doidge concentrates on the brain/body connection, I am left to consider the possibility that the social/emotional areas can be just as structured and just as plastic. Structure supplies the consistency of thought to choose paths for normal duties – buying bread and choosing political positions. However, given an important enough event, the individual can be forced to reassign paths of thought. As the brain can slowly reduce the space needed for certain physical tasks (e.g., basketball) for currently used tasks (e.g., typing). The brain may also reassign certain thought connections as needs of the social/emotional changes.
Is it possible, for example, that the normal adoption groups can be altered? Is it possible that that adoption of concepts is not predetermined by demographics but those demographics indicate people who tend toward a certain thought pattern? With plasticity, those thought patterns can change.
