home | Psychology of Video Games | contact | about | RSS 
« Movie Review: Spartacus |Main| Book Review: Nudge »
Book Review: The Brain That Changes Itself October 9, 2009
The full title of this book is The Brain that Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science and in it author Norman Doidage examines the concept of "brain plasticity." Essentially this has to do with the ability of the human brain (and the mouse brain and the chimp brain, for that matter) to change in response to trauma, disease, or some graduate student with a bone saw and a fist full of electrodes. /p>
One of the early examples in the book deals with a woman who suffered damage to the part of her brain that deals with balance, leaving her with the sensation of perpetual free fall any time she rose to anything above a completely horizontal position. But by controlling a machine with a sensor attached to her tongue of all things, she was able to remap her brain so that a different part took over the balancing gig and she could once again stand up and walk a straight line. /p>
Like other good science writings, The Brain that Changes Itself is filled with personal stories like this one, and they cover some pretty varied ground. One part of the book deals with blind people who learn to "see" by having a computer translate images into physical pressure on different parts of their otherwise vestigial eyeballs. Another looks at what effects hard core pornography has on the brain (besides the obvious one). Yet really graphic and cringe-inducing section deals with sado masochism and its origins in the dark side of neuroplasticity. And my favorite section dealt with a group chimps, some scientists that were deliberately causing them brain damage, the birth of PETA, and the protracted destruction of a gifted neuroscientist's career. It's all pretty compelling and really, really interesting since it's tied directly into lessons on how the brain works./p>
My only complaint about the book is that Doidage goes off in some pretty weird directions, such as his condemnation of porn --not that I disagree with the condemnation, it's just that his arguments come from a pretty odd direction. And about three quarters of the way through he switches gears a bit into a staunch defendant of Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis in general. This wouldn't be so bad (it's still educational), except that the case study he employs in this section laughably ticks off every item on the list of psychoanalysis cliches --emotionally distant man who the psychoanalyst asks to "tell me about your mother" and who uncovers buried memories until he's curled up in the fetal position on the couch and bawling like a child. It was just a wee bit over the top./p>
Still, those parts aside I liked this book. It's brain science made fun and interesting.
Comments (1) |
Permalink | 
File under:
Books
Tags: Book Review, Nonfiction, Psychology
Comments
Posted by Brain Training Advocate on October 12, 2009 2:36 PM:
I had a similar reaction to this book. Overall, very well put together. Fascinating and pertinent information about the field of brain science and the far reaching possibilities for brain change. (I also agree that when Doidge digresses into his own field with his own theories it becomes much weaker. But these sections are easy to read through, disagree with, and move on.)
A must read for anyone interested in the subject of brain plasticity.
Martin
www.mindsparke.com
Effective, Affordable Brain Training Software