Questions Arising from the book, The Brain That Changes Itself
The following are some of the disorders covered in the book:
-Loss of senses: vision, balance, hearing
-All kinds of learning disorders
-Reading problems
-Auditory processing problems
-A bit on autism and hypersensitivity
-How to preserve an aging brain
-Issues of love, and sex and plasticity
-Pornography and other addictions
-Stroke recovery: for speech loss and paralysis
-Brain injury recovery: for speech and movement
-Cerebral Palsy
-Pain-phantom pain and chronic neuropathic pain
-Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
-Worrying
-Depression and anxiety
-Psychotherapy, Psychoanalysis
-Psychological Trauma
-Major brain problems, such as people born with half a brain
-Cognitive problems that occur after brain surgery
-Implications for understanding culture, given that culture rewires
the brain
What follows are some details that might be helpful, offered as general information that you might want to look into yourself, with the help of your health professional. This information is not intended as a shortcut way of giving medical advice or a medical consultation about any particular condition.
Keep in mind that there are many practitioners, of both new, and conventional therapies, who make use of brain plasticity—whether they are aware of it or not. Also keep in mind that neuroplastic interventions recruit healthy tissue to take over from disordered, diseased, damaged, or underdeveloped tissue. So, to work, there must be some healthy tissue in the brain.
Frequently Asked Questions
•Can you give me a referral—the name of a person who practices neuroplasticity using the principles described in The Brain That Changes Itself— who lives in my area?
No. But you or your health care practitioner can contact the clincians and scientists that Dr. Doidge describes in his book for this (many are listed below). The neuroplasticians that Dr. Doidge has studied the most, and knows best, and has come to trust, are described in detail in his book. Some contact information is below, some you can get on the Internet with a little research. They include many of the most important pioneers in the field. They know who, if anyone, they have trained, and may know who is in your area. It is also important to understand that the neuroplasticity revolution is very cutting edge, and like all scientific revolutions, it can take 10 to 20 years before these techniques are widely available. You may have to be prepared to travel to get a cutting-edge treatment, so investigate it carefully.
You may be lucky and have someone in your area who treats your problem using these principles. In many cases you may have to be willing to travel. In some cases, the treatments are available either online, or by ordering a program for your computer (see below). As Dr. Doidge tests and gets to know more about programs, he will share that information on his website and in his lectures, or in coming publications.
•I have balance and orientation problems, and related movement problems. How can I find out more about the work of Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita?
Keep in mind that there are many kinds of balance problems, with different causes. The Brain That Changes Itself describes one approach that works for a number of these, developed by Paul Bach-y-Rita, and his team. This is cutting edge research, and not widely available as of yet. The device that Cheryl used, is available in some countries, but not the USA at this time. Contact http://www.wicab.com for product information and clinicians using the device in Canada, Brazil and a number of European countries. Unfortunately, Dr. Bach-y-Rita recently passed away. However, the lab he set up continues his work, and can be contacted through kmrust@wisc.edu and it is here that Dr. Bach y Rita’s co-inventors work.
•Where can I get neuroplastic treatment for a stroke, or brain trauma or injury that has left someone partially paralyzed?
The leader in the treatment of stroke-induced paralysis that Dr. Doidge would turn to for someone he cared about is Dr. Edward Taub. Contact his clinic at taubclinic@uabmc.edu, or call their toll free number: 866-554-TAUB.
They are the pioneers in this treatment, and you should contact them and see if they can help you. You can’t do this treatment on the Internet. You have to be willing to go to the clinic in Alabama for about 10 days. The cost is reasonable. Because Dr. Taub and his clinic pioneered this therapy, they have the most experience with it, by far.
•I (or someone I love or care about) have movement problems from cerebral palsy, ms, or other brain problems.
The same Taub clinic has begun working with children with CP and has had successes with those other illnesses as well. These interventions don’t cure MS, but they can, at times, recruit healthy cells to take over lost functions.
•What about loss of vision after a stroke or brain trauma?
One program that Dr. Doidge has not investigated, but that he has heard about, is Novavision. It is designed to help people who have lost parts of their visual fields after a brain injury, and involves retraining. Dr. Doidge can’t recommend it because he hasn’t met with the scientists, or with people who have tried it yet, but he thinks it looks interesting, and if he had this kind of problem, he would certainly look into it.
Take a look at the site:
http://www.novavision.com/index.php?gclid=CJ7FnoeqhJYCFQWlQAodJ0kXFw
•Learning Disorders
The Arrowsmith School, (http://www.arrowsmithschool.org/) which Dr. Doidge wrote about in chapter 2, is an extraordinary school, with branches in Canada and the U.S. The school, now with almost 30 years of experience, uses neuroplasticity to treat and often cure a large range of the commonest learning disorders, both verbal and nonverbal. Barbara Arrowsmith is the pioneer, par excellence, in brain-based assessment of learning problems (assessments that really show which brain function needs work) and brain exercises for these problems. While most of the school’s program has to be done at one of the school sites, they will be putting some of their testing and brain exercises online soon, so it will be more widely available, an exciting development.
•But there is no Arrowsmith School in my area…
Arrowsmith School, (http://www.arrowsmithschool.org/) has a model in which it sets up programs in existing schools. If you are interested, contact the above address for further information. They are setting up new school programs.
•A reading disorder, caused by an auditory processing problem.
If it is a learning disorder based on auditory processing, Scientific Learning at http://www.scilearn.com/ has a program that has been tested and shown excellent results, with hundreds of thousands of people. This is the Fast ForWord program Dr. Doidge described in chapter 3. Developed by world leaders in neuroplasticity, the program can be ordered and done on one’s computer at home. It is quite fast, if you have the brain problem it treats, and you can do it at home.
•I want to preserve and improve my brain as I age…
Dr. Doidge wrote extensively of the work of Dr. Michael Merzenich, a professor who started a company, called Posit Science, at http://www.positscience.com.
As far as Dr. Doidge is currently aware, their language-based program, Brain-Fitness Program Classic, has the most high quality scientific studies behind it, of any such program. It was developed by a team of neuroscientists with extraordinary scientific and practical knowledge. It is described in chapter 3, and more in chapter 10 of the book. Recently, their program for vision, called Insight, has been released, and it too is very sophisticated. As well, light cardiovascular exercise is very helpful for preserving the brain. Check with your doctor.
•I (or someone I love) have chemo-fog after receiving chemotherapy or a brain injury, and now have difficulty remembering names and words.
The same Posit Science program, described above, has been tested for chemo brain (or chemo fog) and for veterans with brain damage, with good results. It tunes up the brain. Contact http://www.positscience.com for more information. An injured brain becomes a noisy brain, that doesn’t make strong clear signals. This program may be helpful for other causes of brain problems, when your brain isn’t working as well, in the language-memory realm, as it once did, after some kind of injury.
•Chronic pain. Is it caused by my brain plasticity?
Chronic pain can occur because there is an ongoing disease or injury in the body that needs attention, such as a hurt limb. The best solution is finding that disease and treating it, if possible.
But pain can be chronic for another reason. Sometimes it is because when a disease or injury occurs, the nerves in the pain system are also injured. In these cases, the pain can persist long after the rest of the body has healed. It is in this situation where the neuroplasticity of pain is most relevant. Work with your physician to find out which of the two kinds of chronic pain you or your loved one has. Some pain physicians are just now getting interested in understanding pain and plasticity, and expect some more attention to be paid to it in the next few years. Google “pain” and “neuroplasticity” periodically, to check for new developments. Dr. Doidge will be presenting at the American Academy of Pain Medicine on this topic in January, 2009, and may have more information for this site after that.
•How do I know that the person offering treatment is really up-to-date about neuroplasticity?
If you’ve read The Brain That Changes Itself, you yourself may have a grasp of some of the key principles of plastic change. As the neuroplastic paradigm progressively replaces the notion of the fixed brain, there is a possibility that some people or companies, just to “get in on the action,” will say, “You know, I rewire the brain,” without really being familiar with the core principles. Ask for an account of precisely how their treatment works, and copies of articles or studies on it, and see if that clinician is simply making the claim to sound au courant, or whether he or she has a more in-depth knowledge. People like Merzenich, Taub, Arrowsmith, Bach-y-Rita’s group, and the others described in the book, have all made the serious scientific attempt to validate their results. Other practitioners who are creative, but don’t have scientific backgrounds may also have programs that use plasticity, but check to see if they have written about their work, and can give a deeply thought out explanation of how it works.
•What about brain exercises for ADD and plasticity?
Sometimes people are told they have ADD, when in fact they have a subtle learning disorder. If the brain has an area that has low capacity, when that area is taxed, you get frustrated, upset, distracted, and may even start to look impulsive. Some children seen by the Arrowsmith School come in diagnosed as having ADD or ADHD, and when they strengthen their weakened areas, they no longer need stimulants or other medication. In fact, those children may not have had ADD in the first place. Others at the Arrowsmith School—sometimes—find that they do have ADD and medication helps them do their brain exercises.
There are other approaches to ADD that appear to involve engaging plasticity and training the brain. Dr. Doidge has yet to investigate these intensively, but he thinks that they may show promise.
One is the use of brain exercises to train attention. (Discussed briefly in his book). There is promising work being done on people who have had strokes and lose the ability to pay close attention. They appear to respond to brain exercises. A group in the U.S., called CogMed, at http://www.cogmed.com/ has a group of exercises, with some studies done. (Again, Dr. Doidge has not visited CogMed labs or tried their exercises, but he notes they are doing studies.) Neurofeedback also has had important successes with ADD. See next section.
•What about neurofeedback?
An approach called “neurofeedback” is also showing promise. It involves making people aware of their brain waves (patterns of neuronal firing) and learning to control them. A number of studies and hundreds of clinical cases show that it can be successful with the right client. It is discussed at:
A site that lists and discusses neurofeedback is:
It carries scientific articles on neurofeedback, which is also used to treat a variety of conditions, including fear, sleep problems, chronic pain, epilepsy, teeth grindings, certain kinds of brain and mood disorders, chronic fatigue, Tourette Syndrome, etc. In Toronto, Dr. Doidge often works with Drs. Thompsons at the ADD Centre.
•Are there other treatments or activites that Dr. Doidge thinks engage brain plasticity?
Scores of them. Dr. Doidge thinks that The Feldenkrais Method, Tai Chi, Meditation and martial arts (especially the internal ones), learning languages through immersion, learning to play a musical instrument, forms of physical and occupational therapy, often engage it in a sophisticated way.
•What are some search terms for me to use as I look for neuroplastic treatments and the condition I am interested in?
Here are some good ones: cognitive neurorehabilitation, neurorehabilitation, neurorehab, cognitive rehab, experience-based plasticity, neuroplasticity, neural plasticity, neuronal plasticity, brain plasticity, plasticity.
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Questions arising from “Changing your Mind”—the latest film based on The Brain That Changes Itself.
How can I get a copy of the two films of the stories from The Brain That Changes Itself, “The Brain That Changes Itself,” and “Changing Your Mind.”
Neither film is yet available for sale to individuals. Changing Your Mind premieres in Canada September 30, it will not be available to the general public as a DVD while it is still yet to be shown in various areas in the English speaking world and Europe. After the premiere, it will be available, to people in Canada, on the Nature of Things website (see Film, on this website for the link). The Brain That Changes Itself can be linked to, by Canadians, as well, from this site. It has been shown in Europe, Australia, and some US markets, but still is still in the process of being shown in the US.
Who developed the Post-traumatic Stress Disorder treatment described in Changing Your Mind?
The new treatment for PTSD illustrated in the film, Changing Your Mind, which shows patients writing out narratives of their trauma and taking the medication propranolol, has been developed by Canadian psychologist Alain Brunet, Ph.D., associated with the Douglas Hospital and McGill University, Montreal Canada. The Brain That Changes Itself describes how the process of re-consolidation of memories puts memories into a plastic, malleable state. For more information on this treatment, contact Dr. Brunet, and see his bio, at
http://www.douglasresearch.qc.ca/researcher/alain-brunet
Where is the treatment for Schizophrenia and its cognitive symptoms being developed and tested?
This groundbreaking work is being conducted by Dr. Sophia Vinogradov, at UCSF. A number of studies have been completed; others are due to be completed in 2014. Dr. Vinogradov’s bio is at
http://psych.ucsf.edu/faculty.aspx?id=174
Her group’s first major study, showing improvement of the cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia, came out in the American Journal of Psychiatry, and is at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19448187
This treatment is not widely available yet, and if you are interested in it, you should contact this group.
Obsessive compulsive disorder—how can I learn more about that new treatment for it?
The therapy for OCD described in Changing Your Mind, is described in detail in Dr. Doidge’s book, in the chapter of that title. It is based on the work of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz, whose own book on the subject is called “Brainlock.” It is a self-help book, though to do this technique it is easiest to have a clinician guiding one through it. Dr. Schwartz is based in Los Angeles, and has been affiliated with UCLA, where he has taught the technique. The patients in the film have all worked with Dr. Schwartz.
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Copyright Norman Doidge, 2011.
