ROdown Blog
What does your brain have in common with a Goretex jacket?
Answer: they’re both plastic.
Back in May a few of us from the Reach Out crew took the opportunity to hear all about it from Dr Norman Doidge, an expert in the area of neuroplasticity (also known as brain plasticity) and author of The Brain that Changes Itself, at the Sydney Writers’ Festival.
Neuro what you might ask? That would be Neuroplasticity – the study of the potential of the brain to change itself. A different plastic from plastic the material, but the kind of plasticity which means the ability to be shaped or formed. Extremely interesting stuff.
It would seem the old assumption about ‘leopards not changing their spots’ needs to be thrown out of the unproven popular clichés backdoor. In fact, Dr Doidge referred to the idea of the brain being fixed as ‘spectacularly wrong’!
Some of the fascinating stuff Dr Doidge enlightened us about included:
- The idea of cortical real-estate – if you don’t use it, you can in fact lose it. There’s fierce competition up there. You can literally see different processes take over unused brain space on brain scans!
- You can train your neurons to fire faster. Book them in :)
- Learning a new skill, for example a language, can help prevent age-related decline of the brain. You may not be old yet, but it's never too early!
- Dr Doidge also spoke about the effectiveness of talk therapies in rewiring thinking patterns - something you might already know a bit about and explained in our self-talk fact sheets.
For me personally, this seems like useful info to know so that I understand my own ability to literally change my brain and its various pathways, and have faith in other people’s ability to also do so.
So now that you know more about the brain’s ability to change, what are some of the steps you can put in place to rewire your brain?
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7 Comments
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miss atreyu
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportWow this is fascinating that the brain is plastic well stretchy lol. I must say that its true I work at a nursing home and we have a famous cello-ist and she still is very intelligent we had a lady come in for respite and had demtia really bad but she could still play the piano beautifully we also have a lady that is 95 and she reads alot and wow is she as we say still has her marbles and ladies that still do puzzles are very smart!
Antria
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportWhat I think is an awesome example of this (that I heard at uni), is that if you play a musical instrument heaps and heaps and heaps (e.g., the piano) the areas of the brain that control each finger can become so much bigger that they start to connect and it becomes impossible to move your fingers on their own! The only way to fix it is to stop using the fingers like that for awhile to give the brain some time to shrink those areas! Its really rare though.
Another one is that if you have a child with a problem with one eye, and you cover the other to help strengthen the weaker eye - you have to routinely take the cover off the stronger eye, otherwise the brain will prune off all those pathways and you will become blind in the stronger eye.
What I want to know though, is whether you can re-wire a conditioned response such as hypervigilance and if so how to do that. A counsellor suggested mindfulness but I think in a way that actually increases it because your there, present, in the room and noticing everything. Sometimes I feel like its not possible and that it pretty discouraging (since I am sooo jumpy leading to many awkward moments, lol).
I like the idea of walking barefoot and have to admit that at the moment I don't do much, other than uni, to stimulate my brain. I'll have to get thinking!
Mockingjay
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportHaha, breathing, it sort of does, through the blood flow haha. Kind of like a fish? Maybe not the best comparison, but you know.
Now, puzzles! That's an idea I never thought of. To be honest I'm terrible at Sudoku's, but I guess if I payed more attention to it, and didn't give up on it so soon. Plus the other word puzzles would be a great idea, I'm going to start that today!
Does walking barefoot include socks? I'm currently wearing thin, ankle socks (so my tootsies don't get cold), but does it count? Or does it have to be completely bear feet? I like the idea though, would never have thought of that being an issue.
Gosh this is all very interesting, might have to pick up the book myself xD
Becks
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportI try to keep my brain stimulated a lot of the time, because I find that I get bored very easy, and this for me usually ends in destruction. So yeah.
Things I do to keep my brain stimulated is things like reading, writing, drawing, but also I play online games, both word based (crosswords etc), and also number based (sudoku etc). I also play games that are puzzle based (mahjong etc).
Learning new breathing techniques and yoga poses is another example of things I do to stimulate my brain. I also find these things are extremely relaxing, and give me the chance to take time out from the world around me, and just spend some time focusing on me.
Becks
anna
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportOh - and as an example - for me:
- I've recently started cryptic crosswords (it's slow to begin with, but very satisfying when you get a word right!).
- I'm booking into a 2 week intensive language course in October.
- Exposing myself to lots of new experiences on a 6.5 week holiday (not possible just to slip into your routine I realise).
- AND I'm planning more barefoot walks along the beach :)
Maybe other people could share their ideas for themselves, and thoughts about the whole brain plasticity thing!
I'll try and get my hands on a copy of the book for more examples :)
anna
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportHi Mockingjay, Glad to hear this seems a point of hope to you! For me too. It's comforting for me to know my brain is a living, breathing (well, sort of!) thing, that is malleable with new experience - which we have a fair bit of control over.
The same goes for speaking with other people, young or old; the idea that someone may have thought patterns that are extremely negative, and that there is a lot that can be done to change that. I'm sure it's not always easy, but it CAN be done. (They are talking about reforming criminals in prison through re-wiring their brains after all....so a few negative thought pathways should be seen as a challenge worthy of an optimistic concerted effort!)
As for the steps - well, there were a number of things Dr Doidge recommended. I'm sure there are a lot more in the book.
Some others I haven't already included are:
- do the puzzles in the paper, like sudoku and the 9 letter word puzzle. These are especially recommended for older people to stop their brains from degenerating, but keep young brains active too!
- He suggested walking barefoot more often – our feet have become accustomed to not needing to balance the same way since we now wear shoes with flat surfaces all the time. Don’t let your brain forget how to walk barefoot – keep the pathways open!
- not his suggestion, but following his point about talk therapies, even if you're not seeing a counsellor or doing talk therapy with someone face to face, you can do this with yourself!
Check out the fact sheets on Introducing self-talk, Challenging negative self-talk, and Common thinking errors as a start, and make sure you're familiar with the Help yourself section and perhaps even jump into to have a peek around the Zen Den in the ROtreat forums for more ideas and activites to help change the way you think about things for the better :)
Mockingjay
over 2 years ago
Reply ReportWow, how interesting. That's definitely something I wouldn't have ever realised, or even thought of, to be honest.
To me it seems like a point of hope. As it means I may be able to change my brain from a procrastinating brain, to a do-things-early brain haha. Also training neurons to fire faster would also be a great thing to master!
As for the steps, I'm really not sure on that. Does anyone have any ideas? Maybe I could get ideas of others.