Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life Author: Dr. Michael Merzenich PhD | Language: English | ISBN:
0989432807 | Format: EPUB
Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life Description
About the Author
Dr. Michael Merzenich, PhD is a Professor Emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco, a member of both the National Academy of Science and the Institute of Medicine, and the co-founder of Scientific Learning and Posit Science. Often called "the father of brain plasticity," he is one of the scientists responsible for our current understanding of brain change across the lifespan. To learn more, visit www.soft-wired.com.
- Paperback: 226 pages
- Publisher: Parnassus Publishing; 1 edition (July 27, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0989432807
- ISBN-13: 978-0989432801
- Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
- Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
I first came across Dr. Merzenich and his work in my other reading - 'The Brain that Changes Itself' by Norman Doidge.
The Irish neuroscientist Ian Robertson has described Merzenich as "the world's leading researcher on brain plasticity." (From Doidge's book, p 45)
In addition to Dr. Merzenich pioneering brain plasticity, often in opposition to his peers and against mainstream conventional wisdom, his work extends beyond the lab into practice and application. He has founded several companies that are treating patients who have been resistant to conventional treatment. These are individuals with developmental problems such as language and speech problems and autism. His work also exposes the inadequacy of much conventional treatment.
I am a layperson.
I have been on an odyssey of seeking answers to our adult son's treatment-resistant major bi-polar depression - going on for over three years. He lives with my wife and I and is no longer able to work. He was a high functioning successful professional. He has and continues to run the gamut of every main stream conventional treatment. He has also tried a new treatment still in the research phase of development. This new treatment is based on the relatively recent discoveries in neuroscience about the role of glial cells.
Dr. Merzenich has breathed new hope into our quest for restoring our son's mental health - and beyond merely bringing him out of his depression.
However, the scope Dr. Merzenich's book is much broader than this. It goes beyond the scope of depression. He shows how age related mental decline and disease such as alheizemers are not inevitably determined by fate.
Did you know that brain plasticity holds the key to slowing the signs of aging? If not, keep reading.
I was interested in this book as a means to learn more about rewiring the brain after chemical injury. But reading Dr. Merzenich's comprehensive history of brain plasticity and how he helped pioneer this field, I learned how it can be applied by everyone and anyone to help them recover from health issues of most any kind, and to slow the effects of aging... to make us all stronger, more capable, competent and even more intelligent.
"Plasticity is all about getting the most out of each brain, for the potential betterment of each human life, at any time throughout that life," writes Dr. Merzenich.
I wish my mother had tried BrainHQ exercises before she succumbed to most of the symptoms we all associate with an aging person -- poor memory, difficulty understanding conversations when people speak quickly or there's a lot of background noise, trouble falling asleep at night and then waking up during the day, slow reactions (she recently hit a tree with her car, unable to move her foot off the gas pedal quickly enough). You may laugh, but I'm smiling, because Dr. Merzenich says it's never too late to rewire your brain, and I'm going to make sure both she and I put in time every day doing the necessary exercises to make our brains more alert, more focused, more fit.
I've already shared the simple suggestions that Dr.
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