Human brains grow, change and can heal themselves

Nancy Churnin of the Dallas Morning News (March 2, 2010) reports that "for the longest time our best and brightest neuroscientists thought of the brain as like a machine, with parts, each performing a single mental function in a single location . . .We thought its circuits were genetically hardwired, and performed, and finalized in childhood."  It was believed that, like machines, the brain couldn't "grow new parts," but now scientists believe "that many disorders that we thought can't be treated have to be revisited."  Dr. Norman Doidge, author of the best-selling The Brain That Changes Itself:  Stories of Personal Triumph from Frontiers of Brain Science, goes on to explain that neuroplasticity, or the brain's ability to adapt and change through life, is gaining increased traction in medical circles.  To read more . . .