Chapters 1 & 2
Introduction & What Me, Worry? INTRODUCTORY COMMENT: The reader should understand that this book represents the informed opinion of the author, and is not intended to provide a complete scientific …
Chapter 3
The Gift of “Adult Brain Plasticity” in a Human Life: The story of David Significant improvements in speech reception abilities like those recorded in David have been achieved several million …
Chapter 4
MY Earth is Spinning Faster and Faster…Special challenges for developing and sustaining a modern brain Helmuth Plessner, a leading proponent of “philosophical anthropology”, is most strongly identified in my mind …
Chapter 5
The Great Awakening: “My Brain Is PLASTIC” How the scientist writing this account finally saw the light An annotated autobiography including an abbreviated description of my University of California laboratory’s …
Chapter 6
A Special Experiment That Demonstrated the Incredible Power of Cortical Plasticity in Older Adults Lessons learned, from the development of a cochlear implant Again, I have published a brief account …
Chapter 7
The Power of Plasticity for Transforming Lives It’s all about YOUR brain and YOUR future John Corcoran tells the story about his reading failure as a child, and about his …
Chapter 8
Riding The Human Roller-Coaster… The Rise—Then Fall—of Human Ability Across a Lifetime Psychologists studying the development of language-specific phonological processing have shown that newborns can discriminate between phonemic inputs (phonemes …
Chapter 9
Cranking Up the New Machinery… The acquisition of skills and ability in early life General reference books and review articles on the critical period and on child development listed in …
Chapter 10
How DOES an Older Brain Remodel Itself?! Ten fundamental principles of brain plasticity “Change is mostly limited to those situations in which the brain is in the mood for it.”On …
Chapter 11
Reaching the Mountain Top Your brain, on steroids A few references related to my description of the general development of motor control ability in childhood (note that many hundreds could …
Chapter 12
Slowly Sliding Back Down the Slope… Aging – and other sources of decline in our cognitive abilities – that can degrade the quality of our operation capabilities and imperil our …
Chapter 13
Believing in Brain Plasticity Applying this science to recover a life You can learn more about Ryan and his special journey (and meet him) at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y817Q7oOYw Ryan Reitmeyer and his …
Chapter 14
You are Special! How your brain remodeled itself to create the unique person that is reading this book. For a general reference to memory processes, see Schacter DL, Searching for …
Chapter 15
Your parallel universes… Growing, sustaining and controlling your operations in ALL of your brain Worlds For the classical description of the loss of cutaneous sensation in oxygen-deprived skin, see Head …
Chapter 16
Loading Your Own Encyclopedia Magnifica Memory acquisition and use For a few of Abe Lincoln’s jokes, see Paul Zall’s (2007) Abe Lincoln’s Legacy of Laughter: Humorous Stories By and About …
Chapter 17
A Typical Day in the Life of Your Brain! Perceiving, recognizing, recording, pondering, understanding, responding The basic numbers/facts about the brain provided in this superficial description of the brain and …
Chapter 18
Transformation, Part Deux How improvements at the ‘little things’ can change the course of a life These are self-reported tales (chosen from among many examples) that come a) from two …
Chapter 19
Losing Ground, Just By Having a Birthday! How, more exactly, do mental and physical performance abilities change as we grow older? Several hundred studies have documented changes in processing speed …
Chapter 20
It’s Not Just About Growing Older. Of Course. Many other things can befall us that can contribute to our neurological struggles For a first-person account of autism (there are several …
Chapter 21
When Brains Change, You Change. Older should be wiser, better, and more balanced, but alas The weaknesses described in this chapter have been referenced earlier, esp. in the notes for …
Chapter 22
Machinery In Need Of Repair Physical, chemical and functional changes in older and in wounded brains For a description of changes in brain volumes in aging—and in the progression into …
Chapter 23
WHY Is My Brain Slowing Losing It? Root causes of physical and functional changes in aging Scientists have noted differences in the numbers of sensory receptors in human skin as …
Chapter 24
Pushing harder on that accelerator, in reverse! How ‘negative learning’ can speed up age- and brain injury-related decline Age related differences in gait patterns have been recorded in many studies. …
Chapter 25
Frankly, This Subject Is Depressing Me… How other medical issues contribute to – and often accelerate – functional and neurological decline I’m not going to go all the way down …
Chapter 26
Alzheimer’s How changes in a brain can result in its ultimate catastrophic collapse For a general reference about Alzheimer’s Disease, written for the informed layperson, see Coste JK, Butler R …
Chapter 27
That Troublesome Body Hooked Up To My Brain… A healthy brain is CRUCIAL for sustaining a healthy body Many scientists demonstrated the neurobehavioral benefits of a regular dose of physical …
Chapter 28
Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks How the scientist writing this book began to realize that there are very good uses for one of God’s (Mother Nature’s) greatest gifts: Your plastic …
Chapter 29
“Science to the People” Bringing this new form of help from the Ivory Tower out into the real world Again, the history of our founding Scientific Learning Corporation, Posit Science …
Chapter 30
Reorganizing Your Life With a Brain Fitness Goal Daily activities that can contribute to the maintenance of a healthy brain This discussion is supported by annotation accompanying other book chapters …
Chapter 31
Programs for Brain Rejuvenation or Brain Recovery Features of computer-controlled, Internet-delivered neuroscience-based programs designed to grow, rejuvenate or recover – then sustain – your brain health The principles guiding the …
Chapter 32
What Does Mike Do? How has the writer of this book organized his life so that person that he is can continue to THRIVE and GROW. My own personal strategies …
Chapter 33
Can’t I Just Take a Pill? Other useful strategies that can contribute to your brain health. For general references (now several years old) summarizing evidence that physical exercise is good …
Chapter 34
My memory is pretty good, but my back is driving me crazy… Helping your brain help your body. Annotation largely in earlier chapter. H Flor driving antinociception In its early …
Chapter 35
Driving Matters Navigating the Modern World Drs. Karlene Ball (University of Alabama at Birmingham), Daniel Roenker (University of Western Kentucky) and Jerri Willis (University of South Florida) first demonstrated the …
Chapter 36
Improving Yourself Taking a holistic approach to improving your Personhood. This is my perspective, based on the research summarized in earlier chapters. Refer to those chapters for references supporting these …
Chapter 37
“Today Is The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life” GROW AGAIN. Begin that transformation to a new, better place in life TODAY. My perspective; needs no additional annotation …