I often hear that it is too bad that we don't have more positives in the news. Then, I see myself forgetting about anything positive as ok, unimportant, not needing action. The negatives, however, get top-billing: taxes on the rise, body weight rising, etc.,etc.
I am reading "Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Plasticity Can Change Your Life" by Michael Merzenich. I was first introduced to brain plasticity by "The Brain That Changes Itself"by Norman Doidge, MD and that is an excellent and inspiring book, indeed. However, Merzenich was the 2nd important contact. He is a main part of Posit Science, the company that produces brain-training software such as the Brain Fitness Program (B.F.P.) and Insight. Merzenich is sometimes featured on public broadcasting efforts to raise funds and the B.F.P. is sometimes used as a reward for a big contribution to Wisconsin Public Television.
The title implies that brain plasticity is a new topic but even a non-specialist like me has known about the subject for nearly ten years. It was a big surprise to scientists and physicians that the brain at any age acquires new connections and abilities. That picture differs strongly from the idea that in one's early 20's, the brain is set for life, finished growing or changing, and ready to deteriorate until death. Most of the statements about plasticity are quite positive, emphasizing the possibility of studying a musical instrument or a foreign language as a way of keeping one's brain sharp and widening one's interests.
However, Merzenich got my attention with this statement:
10. Brain plasticity is a two-way street; it is just as easy to generate negative changes as it is to produce positive ones. There are winners and losers in the game of brain plasticity. It is almost as easy to drive changes that can impair one's memory or slow down one's mental or physical control as it is to improve one's memory, or speed up the brain's actions. As I'll discuss in detail later, many older individuals are absolute masters at driving their brain plasticity in the wrong direction! Scientists on my research team have conducted a number of studies illustrating this dark side of brain plasticity. For example, about 20 years ago, we conducted experiments that showed that we could turn a person's hand into a useless claw by engaging that unfortunate individual in a particular form of training for an hour or two a day over a several-week-long period. In the same way, if you would like to volunteer for it, I could easily train you over a similar time period in ways that would utterly destroy your ability to follow a normal conversation, or read the rest of this book. Why would we use plasticity to drive negative changes? It turns out that millions of people have lost the control of their hand in what is called a focal hand dystonia, which occurs as a result of how they use their hands in their occupation, through exactly this same kind of negative plasticity learning scenario. Previously, when a keyboard or computer mouse user, a professional musician, or an assembly line worker catastrophically lost control of their hand movements, scientists and clinicians blamed their dysfunction on physical changes occurring within the offending hand, arm, or other body part. We now know that such problems initially arise from negative, learning-induced plastic changes in their brains. Once our physical therapist collaborators began to re-train brains— rather than try to address these individuals' problems as exclusively residing in their hands and arms— they found that it was relatively easy to correct this class of severely disabling conditions. Now that you have these ten principles
Merzenich, Michael (2013-08-02). Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change your Life (pp. 50-51). Parnassus Publishing. Kindle Edition.
This just boils down to the oft-repeated phrase "Use it or lose it". Besides, the negative wording, which did get my attention enough to allow me to realize it, plasticity means that in many cases, if we do lose some ability we want, we can train it back into our repertoire.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
