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Overview

Your brain is like the Doctor. It can regenerate itself, heal itself and change your body in a way that helps you grow.

This passage explains the incredible flexibility of the brain. It also explains how this organ can change and develop itself in response to injury, threats, and stimuli—a key part of what makes us humans so adaptable.

In this article, you’ll learn why your libido isn’t set in stone and how thinking actively can help prevent dementia.

Big Idea #1: The brain changes itself through processes like “unmasking.”

For years, it was thought that the brain couldn’t change. But we’re learning otherwise thanks to neuroplasticity. It turns out that our brains can actually change and adapt throughout life.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change its nerves and function. The prefix “neuro” refers to neurons, i.e., nerve cells in our brains and nervous systems, whereas the suffix “plastic” means changeable. Thought and activity alter the structure of our brains. One way that happens is through unmasking.

Unmasking is what happens when one neural pathway is closed and another one opens up.

Cheryl Schiltz is a great example of neuroplasticity. She had lost the balance function in her brain, but was able to regain it with help from Paul Bach-y-Rita.

A device was placed on Schiltz’s tongue, which sent signals to a plastic strip containing electrodes. The sensations were then redirected to the area in Schiltz’s brain that processed balance instead of going where they normally went: to the sensory cortex, which processes touch. After much practice with the device, a new pathway in Schiltz’s brain was unmasked and strengthened, and she began to regain her balance on her own.

Big Idea #2: Stimulating activities can change the structure of the brain.

The brain is good at adapting to its environment. However, we can change our brains without the help of sophisticated gadgets. We simply need to be in an environment where we are stimulated and exercise our minds as well as our bodies.

The brain is made up of cells that communicate with one another. The more often these cells connect, the stronger and faster they become. This process is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity has been observed in humans as well as animals. One experiment showed that rats raised in a stimulating environment had higher levels of neurotransmitters than those raised in an uninteresting environment. Rats from the stimulating environments were also heavier and healthier than their counterparts.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young took advantage of this information to help her overcome her learning disabilities.

Her biggest challenge was with math, as well as logic and cause and effect. She also had trouble understanding grammar. As a result of these issues, she couldn’t tell time on an analog clock because she didn’t understand the relationship between the hands. In conversations, she would have to think through them multiple times before remembering what they were about.

After learning about the plasticity of the brain, Young decided to try some mental exercises for herself. She carried out those exercises for weeks in order to change her brain.

She would read hundreds of cards with different clock faces and then shuffle them. She couldn’t memorize the order of the clocks, but she could remember their positions on a card. When she turned over a card, she had to tell what time it was based on her memory alone. If she got it wrong, she would spend hours practicing telling time until finally getting it right.