Neuroplasticity is a dirty word

[image error]The latest refrain in popular science is that 'your brain is plastic', that experience has the potential to 'rewire' your brain, and that many previous mysteries in cognitive can be explained by 'neuroplasticity'. What they don't tell you is that these phrases are virtually meaningless.

Neuroplasticity sounds very technical, but there is no accepted scientific definition for the term and, in its broad sense, it means nothing more than 'something in the brain has changed'. As your brain is...