The Brain that changes itself

I found The Brain that Changes itself to be a decent entry level reference to brain plasticity. Norman writes with clarity and accessibility on a topic that could have been crowded with complicated medical jargon, on the flip side, I found his narrative to be sometimes dangerously close to hyperbolic, but I think it is important to read between the lines of pragmatic research and selling the reader the idea through case studies. Why I say this, is because he doesn't question the findings of others but runs with it wholeheartedly. This might be what he refers to as "perfectibility", and something he unconsciously is doing himself.

He does write briefly about the contrary nature of neurological plasticity (the plastic paradox), and revisits that notion in the last chapter. I wanted more from the other side of the argument and why the contradictions don't stand up, so I could balance an objective view.

I found some of the descriptive asides of the neurological scientists to be a little sycophantic in the sense of an unnecessary embellishment on scientific prose. Norman's tone does change, however, when he touches on the science of his own background, psychology and psychiatry. I felt the chapter on "Acquiring Tastes and Loves" should have been omitted from this case study, as it could fill a book of its own, and I found some of Norman's lines of reasoning to be arguable.

There certainly is some fascinating stuff to be found in this book, and I found it gave me a better understanding to how a brain copes under the stress of injury or malformation. I would recommend it to anyone wanting an overview of neurological plasticity, and a little knowledge of its history, and where it is going. I commend Norman for penning the book, and I certainly found it interesting. On the whole it isn't a pseudo-scientific study, nor intended for self-help, but it is an eye opener, and the general principles are incredibly valuable for those of us challenged by brain injury.

Please read the Appendix 1 and 2 before you finish this book. They are the best comments on the stories he presented. And you'll find the motivation of the author to write this book, as well as his deep thinking of the fundamental roles of the plasticity of  brains in human history.

Overall, it's a good reading. I have been  convinced that the human brains are dynamic and plastic though limited while we are getting older and more important  is that we can change it using specific methods and a great effort. The author knows how to present the Science at the right places - while you are very curious about the stories. So you would not get bored, at least in most of the time. The only part I may complain is that a few topics are still very controversial, but the author presented them as they are truth. For instance, Barbara Arrowsmith Young's work is more based on anecdotes but not on solid scientific studies and that the existence and the functions of stem cells in adult brains are extremely restricted. But he gave me the impression they are super prominent and promising. 

A large group, although with no newbies. It seems that everyone got something from this book, relating it to past careers in speech pathology, or to teaching (We've got a big crop of current or former teachers.), although some other people also noticed that the book sometimes came across as an advertisement. The discussion touched on how children learn, how children learn language, how adults learn language, whether multi-tasking is effective, purposefully doing what's hard for you (and how caregivers and random strangers seek to help people who really need to struggle through it themselves). Carolyn told of meeting that rarest of beasts, a native Esperanto speaker. I tried to prove that literacy is not dying in this country by pointing to the popularity of the Twilight books. Which is maybe not a particularly good argument. Ruth made a plug for Cutting for Stone, which is this year's Everybody Reads book for Lake Oswego, which is putting on talks and dinners for it, but no book discussions. (So maybe literacy is dead.)