Neuroplasticity - The Brain Can Change!

Lecture by 
Dr. Norman Doidge

I attended a fascinating lecture by Dr. Norman Doidge on Neuroplasticity. He is a leading neurplasticity expert and the New York Time's Bestselling Author of The Brain that Changes Itself. He shared research and case studies of people with learning disabilities or brain damage who improved their condition using non-invasive therapy.

Dr. Norman Doidge

I was particularly interested in his explanations on using movement and energy (i.e. vibrations like gentle touch, sound, and light) on and in the body to affect the brain. I am more and more convinced that movement is necessary to maintain optimal health. I am not convinced that we need specialized training or to do heavy exercise, but we DO need to keep moving. We've heard it before, but movement, even as simple as walking, will not only benefit the body, but also the brain.  

The ancient Eastern medicines were based on energy work and modern medicine is just beginning to recognize the validity of it. Dr. Doidge said that Hippocrates described medicine as working with nature, whereas modern science was conceived as the conquest of nature. I am the first to admit that modern medicine is wonderful - it has saved my life and made it possible for me to function. But I have also benefited from therapeutic energy work when I have received massages and I am often amazed at some of the results I see when I use soft-touch massage modalities that are based on energy work.

Dr. Doidge pointed out that only in anatomy text books is the brain separate from the body, but in reality there is a deep connection between the body and the brain. As the body moves or is stimulated, the brain changes. Thus, movement (even walking) and massage is connected to improving our learning!

As a side note, while in Utah he visited Neuroworx in South Jordan, Utah and said that it was one of the best places in the world for spinal cord injury rehabilitation. We are fortunate to have innovative therapy right here. Unfortunately, I have not been to Neuroworx, but I do know that the school I attended, Myotherapy College of Utah does send student massage therapists there regularly.

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New and exciting research on the ability of the brain to change, coupled with innovative therapy, can give hope to those who were told there is no more hope for improvement. I believe that massage can be part of the innovative therapy.

From Publishers Weekly:
For years the doctrine of neuroscientists has been that the brain is a machine: break a part and you lose that function permanently. But more and more evidence is turning up to show that the brain can rewire itself, even in the face of catastrophic trauma: essentially, the functions of the brain can be strengthened just like a weak muscle. . . . With detailed case studies . . . Doidge, a research psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at Columbia and the University of Toronto, slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down.