Dr Norman Doidge The Brain That Changes Itself Analysis

Brain science is hard to understand. Very hard. However, Dr. Norman Doidge describes the current understanding of brain plasticity by using relatable examples and comprehensible diction instead of arduous textbook style writing. In The Brain that Changes Itself, Doidge challenges the age-old belief that the brain's structure is concrete by providing countless experiments that prove the brain to be malleable. Doidge shines a light on traumatic injuries and brain illnesses by providing individual cases from patients around the world. For example, Doidge introduces experiments as people, and not simply as diseases. The descriptions and stories almost sound like the introduction to a fiction work, so a variety of readers may be interested. "When Mr. L. Was twenty-six months old, his mother died giving birth to his younger sister . . . He had seven siblings, and now their sole provider was their father, a farmer, who ran an isolated farm on which they live without electricity or running water, in a destitute country during the Great Depression" (Doidge 216). In this excerpt, Doidge describes the familial relationship a

For example, when researchers were working with the mental mirror box, a box that tricks the brain of a patient with a nonexistent limb that the limb is actually there by reflecting the healthy limb, they found that the individual feels as if the limb is present and healthy. Researchers also found that if an individual scratches a particular spot on his or her face, that fulfills the itching sensation that was previously felt on the nonexistent arm. This is because when one area of the brain is not being used, such as the arm map when the arm is amputated, another part of the brain map takes over, such as the face. This is an extremely interesting finding which explains why blind or deaf individuals experience such profound functioning in their other