Books for Prep | |
 - Unsolicited MarketingI am half way through the book so I may modify this review in the end: I had to mention that the content of the book is great, and I love the subject and think the concepts will be revolutionary very soon. The author does a great job engaging the reader and making what can be an otherwise overly complex simple to understand (unlike Wider than the Sky, a great book but like reading an SAT language test). The only problem is the way the author continues to push products and brands like I'm watching an infomercial. Seriously it has testimonials like "Bob saved his live with this product and you can too!" I would rate the book 5 stars if the content wasn't product-oriented but made references in a footnote or appendix. Cheers. Rating:  - It reconciles so muchI've been reading other recent books about amazing recent neurological work. This one stands out for the degree to which it puts that work in a broader and more useful perspective on what it all means for everyone's future ways of learning, training and healing. Doidge even makes me see finally why psychiatry still holds Freud in such high esteem, and how what is supposed to go on in psychotherapy can be understood in much the same positive way as we view the effects of psychoactive drugs and cognitive behavioral therapies that have demonstrable success. "Plasticity" is Doidge's key concept and he uses it well to link conventional wisdoms of learning to biologically-based refinements on them. More than anything I've read recently, this book tells me we're discovering the mechanisms behind how genes and experience combine, and that clinicians are actually putting these discoveries to work. Take Me With You When You Go Rating: - The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain ScienceThe BRAIN that changed ITSELF is a unique book that in clear and concise terms explains the remarkable healing and reparative properties that our brain possesses. It can be read and understood equally well by both the medical specialist and the general public. It is detailed and yet is an easy to read book that reveals what is being re-discovered about how our brain can heal itself. It refutes most of medicine's long held tenets that the brain has highly specialized nerve cells that are located in certain physical areas. And if an area is severely damaged, those damaged cells frequently die and the function that they performed is lost forever or severely diminished. This book reveals that the contrary is true! The brain in fact is filled with neuronal stem cells that appear to be able to reproduce themselves almost indefinitely without any appearance of aging. These new nerve cells are then able to "rewire" the damaged area. The degree of healing and "rewiring" will vary with the healer's understanding of this process and what is the correct paradigm that needs to be applied for optimal physical and mental rehabilitation therapy. In its simplest form the average, intelligent, curious and imaginative lay person could be of the greatest assistance to a receptive physician in offering suggestions as to how therapy might be approached. It reviews how the somehow forgotten and yet precise brain research done years ago, which could not be explained or understood at that time due to limitations in technology has been re-discovered and proven by our new capabilities in dynamic brain imaging. It gives new hope to anyone that has sustained brain damage and who has been told in recent times that nothing further could be done for them. This also includes many types of memory problems and mental decline due to aging. I am chagrined and sad to say that too many of those in the practice of medicine today are unaware of some of these practical developments in our understanding of the brain's plasticity and due to many reasons may not have the time or be open to hear from their better informed patients what this book has to say. In addition to this book I would also highly recommend the PBS program: The Brain Fitness Program by Dr. Michael Merzenich. As well as Dr. Doidge's brain training program - "Brain Fitness Program 2.0." A second program - "Insight" - is designed to help a person to increase the speed that their brain can process things (data) that are occurring around them as it is happening. Both of these programs will help an individual of any age improve their memory and awareness of their surroundings. Patrick J. Donley, MD Rating: - lucid scienceWeaves themes and theses with just the right amount of empirical data to make brain science interesting and readable. Only downer: I think he downplayed the problem of animal cruelty in doing brain research. Doidge becomes uncharacteristically polemical at times. Rating: - Useful for both scientists and lay peopleThis book could easily be mistaken for a self-help book. It may serve that purpose for some readers, but it is actually more of a science documentary about the amazing learning powers of the human brain, complete with fascinating and well-written interviews of a number of influential brain scientists, and comprehensive end notes. Doidge is an excellent writer, making his complex subject matter very understandable and down-to-earth by adding personal touches here and there. He manages to do this without being obtrusive or annoying as some authors with an agenda do. His agenda is pretty simple: don't believe the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." He details a wide variety of cases where one would assume that the brain is finished learning and improving, but - surprise! - it learns. He explores the concept of "brain plasticity," meaning its ability to be molded like plasticine modeling clay that never hardens. Here are some examples, each of which takes up most of a chapter: Paul Bach-y-Rita developed devices that allow the blind to see again via their tactile sense, and to restore the sense of balance to people who have damage to their vestibular system. Accelerometers send tiny electrical stimuli to the patient's tongue, training them to walk gracefully without falling again. Michael Merzenich developed auditory training systems that speed up processing in the brains of dyslexics and autistic children, and it seems, in anyone who goes through the course. This allows them not only to read and write better, but to listen and communicate better. Jeffrey Schwartz developed cognitive training, based on brain scans of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, that allows patients to "shift the gear" out of their brain-lock by practicing new thoughts, and new actions, instead of repeating compulsions. Edward Taub developed "constraint-induced therapy" for people paralyzed by stroke. By constraining the good limb and forcing patients to use the affected limb, new brain circuits can be called into service to replace lost brain tissue and restore movement and sensation. For someone whose arm has been amputated, using the affected limb is not an option...or is it? V. S. Ramachandran helps patients who have pain or other annoying feelings coming from their phantom (imagined) limb, by having them practice moving their good arm next to a mirror that somehow tricks the brain into thinking the phantom limb can move, too. After enough mirror-box training with symmetrical orchestra-conductor movement commands to their phantom and real arms, the phantom problems vanish. There are accurate descriptions of basic science research highlighting different aspects of brain plasticity, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation by Alvaro Pascual-Leone, and adult neurogenesis by Fred Gage. Doidge describes a few of his own psychotherapy cases that take advantage of brain plasticity, and reviews a number of concepts from Freud that remain useful today in getting patients to change unhealthy thought patterns and behaviors. This is the best book on brain plasticity that I know of, a topic that is often given marginal coverage in otherwise good neuroscience textbooks. He has done a good job of gathering and explaining a spectrum of examples showing that this is what the brain, especially the human brain, does well: change itself. Important historical context is included, showing us how the notion of functional remodeling in the brain has met with much resistance in the neuroscience community for decades. The interviewees Doidge chose are neuroscience pioneers that I often speak of in neuroscience courses I teach at Georgia Tech. My only criticism with the book is the inclusion of some material in the chapter on sexual attraction and love, about deviant sexual behavior. Not for kids, or the squeamish. It seems out of place, as if the editors felt it would boost sales by giving it an NC-17 rating. He did not have to appeal to our prurient side, since the book has so much else to offer. Readable by lay people and scientists alike, the index and end notes allow this book to serve as a starting point for further reading on all of its topics. 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