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The Brain that Changes Itself
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The Brain That Changes Itself - Abhay & Pranjali
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Shobhit
(new)
Sep 15, 2016 01:11AM
Good one
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Yes started finished the preface Try to stick with one chapter a day *-*
@ Sobhit, Em, Meera- thanks, Keep popping up :)
There are 11 chapters, I think one chapter in a day or two would be okay. What do you think?
preface:the machine metaphor is always used in study of brain, even in higher studies of neuroscience. "our brain is like a computer" is an opening line in almost all the books I have read about nervous system, still here the author presents a new way of seeing brain and completely deny's this machine theory.
specific functions have been specific part of brains, yet the author says that a different part can adapt the functions it was not originally assigned. it would be interesting to read how he proves this.........
He said that neuroplasticity is not all good news, it leaves the brain vulnerable to outside influences. what kind of difficulty would it cause?
okay start reading :)I have finished with the first chapter
Mod
Usually it causes neural deafness, renal problems etc. if taken in a high dose for long.
But it is a life saver too.
Mod
@Em : Author describes a case of a woman who given too much Gentamicin and that poisoned her inner ea..."
That can happen with overdosage
Abhay wrote: "Whoa I'm loving this. This book is hitting me like a storm on a dry uneventful work day!! So this is what Neuroplasticity is! The art and science of HACKING THE BRAIN to relieve people of the undes..."IKR, this is so amazing and the way everything is explained is so good!!!
the way Rita's fathers recovery is described, the model of this type of therapeutic programs is been used in treatment of neuromotor, spinal cord injury and cognitive delay patients....government is planning to open centers in every district where this type of counseling and exercise based treatment could be made available to rural and underprivileged population
Btw I loved the back story of Paul bach-y-Rita, wasn't he so adorable :)
things described here makes sense, isn't it like a person with disability comes with another way of doing things, like there are so many articles about people who don't have hands learn to write and draw with there foot. its kind of similar when we learn new skills........
I have started chapter 2
yeah agreed about Bach-y-Rita being a weird name, the first time I read it I was not sure if it was real name or not so googled it and yes that guy was very real and so was his name :)
have completed with chapter 2 and ready to discuss......
Yes Saturdays are work day :(
Yeah let's discuss in evening, once I am home and settled :p
I read this book some time back. Liked it.
Hey, there is no new thing about neuroplasticity.
It's been a trend nowadays that authors claim they discovered something new which was refuted till now. Actually no one haddisagreed with neuroplasticity so far. It's an agreed concept from long. But they take it too far, like by considering Buddha's quote "Mind is everything. what you think, you become" and exaggerate it to write books like 'The secret' and 'Think and grow rich'. Neuroplasticity is known to occur in people who lose something that was part of their brain's functional system. Like if one loses his hearing, the projections for other senses encroach on the part of brain that controlled his hearing, so that his other senses would sharpen. In fact, they teach us this in the first year it self. There are so many things like this which authors take too far. There is this concept of placebo where a disease can be cured by making one believe that he is on medication, while he is not. Some exaggerated that he could cure cancer with the same. Just saying this to emphasise that such therapies are good for books and research papers but not to the practical world. World is such a mundane place, after all!
Niveditha wrote: "I read this book some time back. Liked it."Do join in the discussion then :)
@Ravi- I don't agree about this not being helpful in real life, the examples given here could be used as model for better therapies.
chapter 2this chapter mentioned a dyslexia case. A few week back we actually met this 7 year old girl in a village who had the same disorder. she wrote everything in mirror image and surprisingly her spellings and grammar were accurate, her writing was also very good, the only problem was that she wrote everything in perfect mirror image.
the teachers thought she was being irresponsible or not interested, they had no clue of what to do with her.......
I don't mean to lessen your enthusiasm on plasticity. It really is an interesting brain character. 9-10 years time is apparently recent-times in the field of medicine. Plasticity was known much before that. At ground level such 'works' are good for books it self. That lady with ear damage, she probably was followed up for so many years that drains time, resources and money. That is what is with brain plasticity, it doesn't occurs overnight. It takes hell-lot of time. And it doesn't guarantee consistent results. Anything that the government should concentrate, now, is on the preventable causes. That's the actual 'reality-check'. Children come with diseases that can easily be avoided by vaccines. Many previously untreatable diseases now have novel and 'cool' treatments which seems logical in theory but in practicality, it's a no-good. And moreover such advances are too costly for practical uses. It's not about money always, though. Plasticity takes very long time to take its effect and people are less attracted to such therapies how nicely you tell them of its 'potential' unless they see the benefits in short term. Take for example TB drugs: Outside they are very costly, but government provide them free of cost. The thing with TB drugs is that it relieves symptoms in a few days to weeks but one needs to take it for 6 months continuous for complete cure. But in most cases people stop taking the medicine once they are free of symptoms even when they are warned of its consequences. Which has led gov to implement rules to check this.
Mod
@Ravi- but we are not talking about disease's, we are talking about developmental delay like Autism, ADHD, neuromotor disorders, learning delay, behavior disorder, cognitive delay etc I am certain these can't be treated with Vaccines. These could be managed with therapy, counseling and proper exercises......yes these are costly and take a lot of time, that's why govt is opening centers where free treatment could be available
Actually some developmental delays are because of infections transmitted from mother to child, when in womb, which can be easily prevented by vaccines. It's not about vaccines here. I only wanted to tell that prevention is better than cure, and economic also. So, that's where the gov should concentrate its resources more. And at the same time not to forget of those already inflicted.
gov is concentrating on those factors, we have programs where as soon as the pregnancy is notified, vaccines, medicines and routine checkup starts and this happens in even the remote rural places. but not everything could be prevented. every month in each district, we detect atleast 30-40 new cases, and that is a big number!
Yeah, you are saying what I meant. It costs gov heavy money to provide all those facilities for pregnant women, and not to forget the pay for Dai and ASHA to doctors. And in the above comment, I didn't mean that gov should spend on new ways of preventions, it has some good methods and should continue the same. Rather to spend the same on some advanced therapies. The cases you are seeing are few compared to earlier, thanks to the preventive measures that's in force. And if one encounters more cases, it's just a reflection that the preventive methods have failed and to be looked into.And how many do you think is really aware that gov gives so many facilities. There are other areas of improvement like those of communication, thats a dire necessity now and where the money can be fuelled for 'productive' use.
"And if one encounters more cases, it's just a reflection that the preventive methods have failed and to be looked into."this can be true about neurotube, CHD, down's syndrome, cleft lip- palate,club foot etc
but other disorders can not be "prevented", and these kids no matter how few they are, they do need management and I don't think treating them is wastage of money. they deserves life like everyone else
@Abhay- did you finished 2nd chapter?
Yes, and that's one of my fav movie!!This chapter also questions the education system across the world, which does needs lot of considrations.
I haven't read the 3rd one Will read both 3rd and 4th tomorrow
yes, this chapter raises the question about education system all round the world , the author did suggest a need to develope a brain based assessment system.
how much have you finished?I still haven't read the 3rd chapter......
okay, I too will start then :)
On second thought, I'll read it tomorrow.....not in the right mood to read :/
I am halfway through chapter 3.Did you read the part about learning new things and unlearning "bad habits". this chapter by far is the best one....
just completed the chapter and it was mind blowing!!program like Fast ForWord, is amazing. we need this kind of program in India too at the basic level. imagine all the children benefiting by this.
His explanation of Autism does makes sense, but I think other factors might also be involved for this disorder.....
his explanation of what are we doing wrong in our middle age that makes old age so problematic, imagine we are causing ourselves to develop Alzheimer!!
Abhay wrote: "I need to read up on this nucleaus basalis thing. The idea that we can again unlock critical period plasticity even in adult stage to learn something very fast sounds exciting :D"yes it does, how great life would be if something like this could be done :)
Starting chapter 4............ interesting title ;p
done with the chapterdescribed psychology and neuroscience involving love, lust and sexual attraction .
Didn't find this chapter to be very satisfying though :/
did you started the chapter? where have you reached?
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