More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
the damaged brain can often reorganize itself so that when one part fails, another can often substitute; that if brain cells die, they can at times be replaced; that many “circuits” and even basic reflexes that we think are hardwired are not. One of these scientists even showed that thinking, learning, and acting can turn our genes on or off, thus shaping our brain anatomy and our behavior—surely one of the most extraordinary discoveries of the twentieth century.
The idea that the brain can change its own structure and function through thought and activity is, I believe, the most important alteration in our view of the brain since we first sketched out its basic anatomy and the workings of its basic component, the neuron.
Over the years his labs and others have shown that stimulating the brain makes it grow in almost every conceivable way. Animals raised in enriched environments—surrounded by other animals, objects to explore, toys to roll, ladders to climb, and running wheels—learn better than genetically identical animals that have been reared in impoverished environments.
These exercises are now available in thirty independent-living communities and for individuals through the Posit Science Web site.
Because our brains are experiencing a surge of dopamine, which consolidates plastic change, any pleasurable experiences and associations we have in the initial state of love are thus wired into our brains. Globalization not only allows us to take more pleasure in the world, it also makes it harder for us to experience pain and displeasure or aversion. Heath showed that when our pleasure centers fire, it is more difficult for the nearby pain and aversion centers to fire too. Things that normally bother us don’t. We love being in love not only because it makes it easy for us to be happy but also
...more
Oxytocin is sometimes called the commitment neuromodulator because it reinforces bonding in mammals. It is released when lovers connect and make love—in humans oxytocin is released in both sexes during orgasm—and when couples parent and nurture their children. In women oxytocin is released during labor and breastfeeding. An fMRI study shows that when mothers look at photos of their children, brain regions rich in oxytocin are activated.
Unlearning in love allows us to change our image of ourselves—for the better, if we have an adoring partner. But it also helps account for our vulnerability when we fall in love and explains why so many self-possessed young men and women, who fall in love with a manipulative, undermining, or devaluing person, often lose all sense of self and become plagued with self-doubt, from which it may take years to recover.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal, who spent his later life looking in vain for brain plasticity, proposed in 1894 that the “organ of thought is, within certain limits, malleable, and perfectible by well-directed mental exercise.” In 1904 he argued that thoughts, repeated in “mental practice,” must strengthen the existing neuronal connections and create new ones.
One reason we can change our brains simply by imagining is that, from a neuroscientific point of view, imagining an act and doing it are not as different as they sound. When people close their eyes and visualize a simple object, such as the letter a, the primary visual cortex lights up, just as it would if the subjects were actually looking at the letter a. Brain scans show that in action and imagination many of the same parts of the brain are activated.
Everything your “immaterial” mind imagines leaves material traces. Each thought alters the physical state of your brain synapses at a microscopic level. Each time you imagine moving your fingers across the keys to play the piano, you alter the tendrils in your living brain.
Since there are many thousands of brain activities going on at once, we need forces to inhibit, control, and regulate our brains in order to keep us sane, organized and in control of ourselves so we don’t “ride off in all directions at once.”
