Can You Change? (S1E8 Encore)

In the spirit of being known, again, even as we go into this definition of this word neuroplasticity, we want to bear in mind that we're talking about this particular piece of neuroscience because it really does... help us better understand what it means to be known and how the process of being known actually has the capacity to not just change our minds but to renew our minds And we'll learn how neuroplasticity is the topic that we turn to when it comes to the way we want our minds to be renewed and transformed.

So the definition of this word, neuroplasticity, it has to do with, literally, the plastic nature of neurons, right? So neuroplasticity.

And by plastic, we mean that in science, when we talk about something's plasticity, we're really talking about something's almost elasticity, its capacity to be flexible and adaptive, its capacity to make changes.

When I was in medical school, now 35 years ago, I remember doing work in the VA hospital with folks, men and women who'd had strokes.

And at the time, if you had a stroke, the basic way that you were cared for was that you were probably in the hospital for about six weeks and you might get some physical therapy and or occupational therapy a couple of times a day.

And then you were sent home after six weeks, but there wasn't a lot of anticipated change beyond that because it was well understood at the time that unlike skin cells, unlike other cells in the body that reproduce pretty easily and pretty quickly when wounded or damaged or injured, it was understood that neurons, the brain cells and or cells of your nervous system, so those not just cells in your brain, but cells throughout your body that innervate your hands and legs and your gut lining and everything, that if those cells were injured or killed, that there would be no way for them to be repaired.

Or if they did, the repair was very minimal at best.

And so there wasn't a lot of hope for people who had strokes.

And what began to happen about 20 to 25 years ago is that there was some really interesting research that began to emerge regarding the capacity of neurons to grow under certain conditions.

And this expanded into our ability to recognize that actually under certain conditions, neurons in the brain that were damaged, and this was particular, of course, for patients who had strokes, neurons in the brain actually had far greater capacity to reorganize and to grow again, and to renew than we ever had thought.

And we've come to find out that, in fact, neurons do have the capacity to grow and renew in three particular ways.

So this capacity for neuroplasticity, capacity for our brain to grow again in the face of damage, especially in stroke patients, meant that Whereas 35 years ago, after six weeks, you were sent home.

Now, if you have a stroke, we will send you to a rehabilitation center where for probably maybe up to several months You will be in that center and 10 hours a day, you will be working to exercise your hand, your leg.

You will be working to exercise work because we know that the more we practice, the better we become.

The more neurons are recruited, the more able they are to then do some of the work that neurons that were killed off used to do.

There's a very interesting experiment that was done with a group of college students in which, The researchers wanted to check to see the adaptability of the brain to change its function.

And so they did this really interesting experiment where the college students were blindfolded.

And they had to remain blindfolded for a number of days in a row.

In this case, it was a week.

And if you've never had to be without sight for any period of time, being blindfolded for a week is a long time for this to happen.

I couldn't imagine.

So many of our listeners may be aware that The large portion of the neurons, those brain cells that are at the back of our brain in the occipital lobe, they are largely committed to taking in all the information that we get from our vision center.

So light comes in to the front of the eye, goes to the back of the eye, to the retina, and it runs from the retina through the optic nerve.

And the optic nerves come to the middle of the brain where they cross over one another.

And from there, they travel further up through the back of the brain where all those signals that are coming in and hit the retina, they fan out to the back of the brain.