The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

One of my absolute favourite books, thank you Dr Doidge for your precious insights.

This is a terrific book. I highly recommend it. The book focuses on neuroplasticity (the terrific functional flexibility of the brain), and very often is able to tell the story of the latest ideas in that field whilst relating them to particular human stories. It is written in a clear, thoughtful, engaging way. It's an important book because it is popularising important new ideas. I rather agree with the reviewer who says that Doidge overstates his case and tends to explain everything in terms of neuroplasticity, ... but I am very impressed by the quality and clarity of the book as a whole. I have had a stroke, and I read with interest chapter 5 (which deals with stroke). I felt it was well written and convincing. I found the basic message (that the brain's ability to recover from injury is enormously greater than conventionally understood) tremendously encouraging. That is not to say that my problems of hemiplegia have been solved, but my understanding of the potential for recovery, and how to achieve it, has been improved. As I read the book, I felt that important insights and clues to research were sometimes introduced briefly with little fanfare. E.g. 1) I think the discussion about neuroplastic change and evolution should lead us to question further the orthodoxy about how species evolve, that is natural selection is not the only force at work; and 2) isn't it a puzzlement that in a plastic environment anything is stable and solid? I wonder if the plastic brain is analogous to a fly-by-wire aircraft?

A very readable introduction to brain plasticity. The book is full of examples about how the brain adapts to damage and changing circumstances and requirements of the body. Mr Doidge lambasts the long held view of brain "localization" (specialised areas for different functions, e.g. Broca's area), through case studies of autism and stroke treatments amongst others. Unfortunately the book lacks any critical analysis of its subjects. All Dr Doidge's subjects are heroes who battled for years against mainstream science. One example is the Fast ForWord learning program - a quick Google shows that the program is maybe not as successful as the author claims (or has been commercialised into areas for which is less suitable). There is a chapter on Psychoanalysis using one of Dr Doidge's former patients as a case study, which didn't seem to fit the theme of the book (and reminded me of Frasier!) Dr Doidge has no moral doubt about the use of animals (even cute ones) for experiments. As a lay reader, I found the casual description of brain surgery and permanent disability inflicted on monkeys a little shocking. The experiments have value, but the monkey's rights shouldn't be dismissed quite so completely. Still, a very interesting book.

Found this book hard to start but once I got into it, was a lot of easier and enjoyable. Fascinating reading about the case studies and that there is always hope

This book will almost certainly do more than any other (to date) to change how you think about yourself, your life, and the impact of your early-life upbringing determining who you are and how you think. Equally or even more significantly, it outlines your capacity to change and determine much of your future life - including fending off much of the threat of age-related decline (physical and mental). Additionally, if you or anyone you know has suffered any kind of brain damage/trauma (whether from birth, or incurred at any later stage of life), the various case histories outlined in the book will almost certainly instil more hope and motivation than many orthodox medics - including even experienced (for which sometimes read "fixed attitude") neurologists. The style, though packed with mind-grabbing information, is thoroughly readable, and rather like Oliver Sack's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat", nothing is lost by going to the chapter(s) that first catch(es) your attention. No other book has provoked the "Wow!" response for me on so many page turns - or even per paragraph. Yes, you need to keep hold of your normal level of reasonable critical faculties. There is not always a great deal of "on the other hand" argument on some of the as-yet not fully tested or proven therapies, but even then the opening of minds to new thinking is in itself well worthwhile, even inspiring. And no, I have no connection with the author or any of the largely unsung heroes of medical research and development referenced in the book. But I'd love to have them round my dinner table!

One of the reviews on the back cover of this book reads "Readers will want to read entire sections aloud and pass the book on..." and that is exactly what happened when I read this book. I found it to be extremely easy to read, engaging and a real eye opener. After hearing bits from it, my friends have all asked to borrow it when i'm finished with it (am reading it for the second time at the moment). The stories about the incredible, life changing, treatments of people who had suffered devastating strokes, had unbearable pain from phantom limbs, crippling OCD & anxiety and various other psychological conditions were very inspiring and I would highly recommend anyone with any experience or interest in these conditions to pick up this book. I have already recommended it to lots of people - as I found this book gave me a real insight in the fantastic capabilities of the human mind. I will certainly be trying to use some of the advice to increase my brain power & improve my own mental health.

As someone with chronic disability due to stroke (at the early age of 45) I wanted to understand the way the brain operates in order to aid my rehabilitation. This book describes the structure & workings of the brain in easy to understand, non-medical language. It references studies by notable neuroscientists who have spent lifetimes proving that the brain is a continually evolving organ that can be changed to operate in different ways & that can adapt to differing circumstances. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants a great starting point from which to learn more about the brain & the way it works. People with brain injuries (& their families) can gain much useful knowledge from this book. Also I think that it is also a great place to start for prospective students of neuroscience. Each to their own, in terms of how you want to learn about this stuff but I have found it an invaluable source of information. Certainly not brain-numbing!

This is an interesting and readable book, and it clearly has created a lot of interest in the subject. It covers a range of topics relating to neural plasticity, which is not quite such a new topic as the author would have us believe. The strength of the book is the writing style and how accessible it is. However, I would urge readers to approach this book with a degree of caution, or dare I say take it with a pinch of salt. What the author fails to do is apply any real level of critical appraisal to the material he covers. Some of the material covered has a substantial evidence base, some of it has a shaky evidence base, some has no evidence base whatsoever and is pure conjecture. If I take the example of constraint-induced therapy, originating from a psychologist called Taub, which I went away and read up on quite extensively following the claims made in this book. This is a treament for hemiplegia following stroke, whereby the good arm is constrained for several hours each day, thus forcing the person to use their bad arm. The logic behind this is that this will prevent learned non-use and also facilitate some cortical remapping, so that that control of that arm is taken over by in-tact brain areas. When you look at the evidence, a lot of which is pretty good quality research, this is not anything like the panacea that Doidge presents it to be. There are only a proportion of patients this works for, it is still unclear what the best protocol for its use is, and there is a lack of evidence for it producing lasting, long-term gains. A recent Cochrane review concluded that there was not enough evidence to say clearly whether it was effective or not, so the jury is still out. Some of the education-related material was based on one particular programme. When looking at the references, all the evidence seemed to come from one source, and was not published in peer-reviewed journals (i.e. had not been scrutinised by the scientific community). About the highest level of publication appeared to be a poster presented at a conference. As another reviewer mentioned, the chapter on sexuality seemed to be pure conjecture. Do I regret reading it? No, it entertained me, and annoyed me in equal measure, but consequently prompted me to do further reading. So I have to say I benefitted from reading it, and would probably recommend it to others. But please approach it with a critical mind.

A book which explains and proves about neuroplasticity with various real life studies.

Good book , better understanding of human Brian

This book reads well and the organization is easy to follow. Much more importantly it delves into a subject which I think is critical to understanding ourselves, essentially how our brain functions. There are things so pertinent and fundamental that I could effectively put them to work while reading the book. It is also reassuring that the writer and people in this field understand that there are negative aspects as well to the tenets of the book. I have already given the book as a gift to friends and relatives close to me and recommended it to many others. I am now starting to read it a second time in order to create an outline of all the themes and in order to better understand how this may change and improve my life as well as my relationships with others.

日本語版を読むより、内容理解がスムースでした。なぜかは、ご推測ください。人間の「脳」の素晴らしさ、神秘さを知り、自分でも更に何か出来そうだぞと確信でき、元気が出てきました。 まずは、TOEICテストに、６７歳にして初挑戦しようと計画しております。以上

To Amazon, The book came a little dented at the spine, so I suggest you start wrapping it with bubble wrap so this doesn't happen anymore (I've seen more people with this problem). To the readers, I'm not English so I was a little scared that the book might be written in very technical language. However, the writing is very fluid and simple, it is very easy to understand and visualize what the author is telling us and explaining. I've only read the first chapter yet, but so far the book is super interesting (not boring at all) and almost makes me hooked. I totally recommend it - especially if you have an interest in neuroscience and neuropsychology!!