Its YOUR Brain

The brain is one of the least explored areas of modern science and things are just now getting heated up. Discoveries like the mapping of the cerebrum and the identification of Alzheimer's physiologically have marked monumental progress in understanding that gelatinous lump of gray matter in your head and thankfully, we're only at the beginning. Recent studies reveal a certain malleability to the mind, a state of impermanence that is prevalent in childhood and remaining very well into adulthood. This implies certain implications of course; if the brain is in a constant state of fluctuation can't that be good and also bad? Neuroplasticity, the study of the brain's (and mind's if you're not into that realist mumbo-jumbo) constant shifting and changing, is now at the forefront of neurological research with surmise that it is a process that is the very fabric of the tangible mind. In sum, neuroplasticity can be good and bad just like a lump of clay can be molded into a beautiful sculpture or something resembling my first grade art project. Everyone has this lump of clay, but of course, it is up to us what we decide to do with it.

Neuroplasticity has been utilized by medical professionals for decades as a method of rehabilitation and relearning, even though we have just now become aware of it. Among its many applications, stroke recovery can be seen as the best epitome of Neuroplascity in its benevolence. In 2009, a healthy woman of Florida experiences a stroke and loses feeling and control of much of her right side, speech, and cognitive skills in almost an instant. She is diagnosed with a cerebrovascular insult, a condition that will leave her likely crippled for life. She recovers and advances out of intensive care into a stage of rehabilitation with very dismal hope of ever regaining her former self and brain. But defying expected recovery results, the woman is able to recover her speech, cognitive reasoning, and most of her motor skills thanks to a revolutionary new technique called limb-immobilization therapy first developed in the Silver Spring Monkey experiments  (a matter for a different time). The therapy basically entails the immobilization of a healthy limb via a restraining device, forcing the patient to attempt usage of their disabled arm. The first few trials are not successful; zero motor skills return. But, at around the 17th hour of the bitter failure that entailed most of the experiment, results manifested; the woman began to move her fingers. Finger movements grew into fist-clenching and fist-clenching grew into wrist movement. Eventually at around the 55th hour of treatment, one year after her stroke, the patient regained nearly all of her former motor skills in her affected arm and leg. The reaction from the scientific community was ecstatic and similar trial treatments spawned in recovery centers around the country and later the world. After much study and cerebral mapping, it was discovered that the brain of this woman had anatomically changed; new neurons (preexisting) had worked their way into the formerly dead left motor cortex to bring newfound control to her neurologically dismembered limbs once more. Speaking bluntly, neuroplasticity has enormous potential in the field of stroke rehabilitation and medicine as a whole.

But what does this mean for average, physically-sound men and women like us? It means that we have the power to change arguably the most important organ in our body for our own benefit and use. In fact, learning is actually an example of neuroplasticity; learning involves physical changes in the anatomy of our brain and then our mind (unless you're a realist). So when you're learning, say, the alphabet in your Kindergarden or Pre-K class, your neurons are making physical connections to other neurons (via neural synapse in dendrite-axon connection points) and enabling the learning to occur - connection. But lets say that the reverse happens - you forget. Forgetting is the result of the under-usage in neural activity, meaning that the connections between certain neurons (the ones that recorded where your car keys are) deteriorate. When these synaptic connections deteriorate, you forget; its as simple as that. What I'm trying to get at is that you CAN learn to do anything. There are no bounds that your brain knows besides under-stimulation, the only thing that cases intellectual regression (besides major neurological disorders).

The purpose of this dissertation was to point out that your brain is never set in its ways. You can accomplish anything, acquire any skill, or overcome any obstacle that you may come across. Think about it: a stroke patient with sections of her brain literally dead can recover almost fully to regain her motor skills. If she can do that, can't you do the same thing on a smaller scale? Kids that are struggling in school, people that are having trouble reading: your brain isn't hardwired to be that way. With the right work and the right amount of it, you can enable yourself any set of skills or any set of knowledge that you so desire. Its all up to you.

Its YOUR brain. Do what YOU want with it.