**The real story of how our brains and nervous systems change
throughout our lifetimes--with or without "brain training."
**
Fifty years ago, neuroscientists thought that a mature brain was fixed
like a fly in amber, unable to change. Today, we know that our brains
and nervous systems change throughout our lifetimes. This concept of
neuroplasticity has captured the imagination of a public eager for
self-improvement--and has inspired countless Internet entrepreneurs who
peddle dubious "brain training" games and apps. In this book, Moheb
Costandi offers a concise and engaging overview of neuroplasticity for
the general reader, describing how our brains change continuously in
response to our actions and experiences.
Costandi discusses key experimental findings, and describes how our
thinking about the brain has evolved over time. He explains how the
brain changes during development, and the "synaptic pruning" that takes
place before brain maturity. He shows that adult brains can grow new
cells (citing, among many other studies, research showing that sexually
mature male canaries learn a new song every year). He describes the kind
of brain training that can bring about improvement in brain function.
It's not gadgets and games that promise to "rewire your brain" but such
sustained cognitive tasks as learning a musical instrument or a new
language. (Costandi also notes that London cabbies increase their gray
matter after rigorous training in their city's complicated streets.) He
tells how brains compensate after stroke or injury; describes addiction
and pain as maladaptive forms of neuroplasticity; and considers brain
changes that accompany childhood, adolescence, parenthood, and aging.
Each of our brains is custom-built. Neuroplasticity is at the heart of
what makes us human.
