Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves by Sharon Begley Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Book Review: Train your brain, change your mind?
Summary: 4 Stars
Sharon Begley has a tale to tell, comprised in part "history of science" narrative, part recounting of research, and small part (implicit) comparative religion. Her subject is neuroplasticity of the brain. Conventional wisdom held that we were born with a finite number of brain cells and hardwired connections, and when they were gone, that's it. She weaves together the research of different scientists as they discovered that we can indeed grow new brain cells and connections between them, we can train parts of the brain to take on new tasks, and we can even train our minds to change our brains to change our attitudes. Binding the narrative together is the 2004 Mind and Life Conference at Dharamsala, where scientists engaged the Dalai Lama and a host of Tibetan Buddhist monks with their research findings and explored connections in Buddhist thought.
This is by no means a self-help book, although I am finding it helpful. As a personal safety skills trainer, I am always looking for ways to enhance my clients' learning experiences. I am particularly interested in how people can train to better work through fear, post-traumatic stress, and ready recall of safety skills under stressful circumstances. While Begley is not handing over a set of drills to do in seminars, as I read this book I was coming up with ways to make exercises more effective, and why. That's worthwhile for me.
(I'm giving this book 4 rather than 5 stars only because I felt the writing could have been more concise.)
Book Review: Good, important popular science, but too verbose.
Summary: 4 Stars
This is not a self help book, but popular science of the best kind, carefully, objectively describing the scientific concepts and research which support the idea that at any age your brain can be modified for the good. In particular stroke victims can achieve physical recovery by "rewiring" the brain so that movement is controlled by neurons adjacent to those destroyed, or even directly by the pre-motor cortex (usually used only to plan movement) or by the comparable areas in the other side of the brain, so that, e.g., both left arm and right arm might be controlled from the left side of the brain. The research described pertains primarily to scientific understanding, but also to practical results.
The book goes well beyond rehabilitating stroke victims. Your pre-frontal cortex, which is important to the emotions you experience, might potentially be modified so that not only may the ill be helped, but the "normal; e.g., normal people's "happiness point" might be elevated, they could be become more secure and compassionate (psychology tells us the two go together), etc.. This and other discoveries fit well with Buddhist views. As it happens, the Dali Lama is very interested in Western science, and has encouraged some of the research described. Begley is interested in him and Buddhism, so that this is a complementary focus of the book.
Much as I liked Begley when she was science writer of the Wall Street Journal, and much as I learned from her book and was influenced by it, I did not enjoy it as much as I should have. I found it unnecessarily verbose. It is true that for a long time neuroscientists strongly resisted the idea that the brain could be rewired, but I don't think the lay person intuitively finds the idea hard to accept, at least as it pertains to motor control. Yet Begley writes as if she has to keep hammering the idea home, and also spends too much time in describing some of the animal experiments: for example, a few pages could almost be completely summarized by saying that if you keep the auditory nerve of one ear, in a ferret baby, from reaching the cortex , the visual nerve of one eye will attach to the auditory part of the cortex, and light on that eye will be interpreted as sound (ferret is trained to react very specifically to sound).
Book Review: Avoidence Attachment to this Book
Summary: 2 Stars
It gets tougher and tougher to pick books that meet my reading interests. I confess that to a large extent I rely on reviewers in a couple of the larger newspapers: New York Times, Seattle Times, Chicago-Sun Times, London Times, etc. I also read the Amazon buyer's reviews. Occasionally I will watch PBS or listen to PR in their book review programs. Still it seems that more and more frequently my expectations about a book seems to have been misled. I read the reviews in Amazon and wonder if one or two of the more glowing ones are proffered by the kin and friends of the author or the publisher, and the negative ones might be by envious writers or curmudgeons. Obviously I'm paranoid, as those antics would never happen in the pristine world of publishing. Anyway, the consistently best feedback I receive comes from friends and family; incidentally, who also share they have the same dilemma as I.
Sharon Begley's "Train Your MIND ... Change Your BRAIN" title has the implicit marketing gesture of a "how to" book to start you on an exciting and noble voyage of the sharing of revolutionary discoveries and techniques to enhance your mind and physical abilities ... NOT! Wow, did I misinterpret the intent of the author/publisher.
Once again, here is an author and publisher whom, I believe, have collected some other people's scientific labors and papers in an exciting and amazing field of neuro investigations, and then collates and regurgitates them in an endless cycle of kindergarten repetition that quickly fills page after page whose intent seems more designed to give some heft to their hardback rather than to reinforce and clarify for the reader. I'm feel Begley possibly erred on the side of her didactic role as a science writer when explaining the complicated and esoteric fields in an attempt to clarify for, and educate, the reading public.
Ms Begley interestingly goes on at some length with the old attachment theories, especially the nature/nurture ones as the basis for establishing the viability of neuroplasticity, but seems a bit excessive with attributing a direct correlation between the two concepts especially when considering the possibility if the attachment security is influenced biologically in correlation with temperament. As regards the Dalai Lama, he is cast in a trivialized role and makes no serious contribution to the story line. Some few of his monks do participate in some laboratory experiments resulting in uncertain conclusions.
There are more shortcomings ... but some of the other reviewers pointed them out and I won't repeat them here. There is a great book waiting to be written in this field, but sadly this isn't it.
Book Review: A Look at the Future
Summary: 5 Stars
This book traces the history of scientists looking at the plasticity of the brain. Until recently, psychologist, neurologist and psychiatrist all were of the opinion that the brain was hard wired. That is what you were born with is what you went through life with.
Recent experiments, which are well documented in the book, shows that is simply not the truth. The brain is very plastic. It is capable of being molded. That the way we think has an influence on molding our brain.
As to the age old question of heredity versus environment, the studies clearly show that our enviironment can change your brains. There were some very interesting experiements were lab mice were interchanged between secure loving mothers and neglectful mothers. The results were startling. The pups were more influenced by environment than DNA.
The book also traces the history of the Mind Life Conference, a collobrative effort between the Dalai Lama and modern neuroscientist. It is very informative what the Tibetian monks have known, seemingly on an intuitative basis and what western scientist are now learning on a scientific basis.
This books is not a how to manual in any sense. It does not tell you how to train the mind. Its benefit is in opening the mind to the possibilities that exist in training the mind and therefore changing the brain.
In one sense it is a glance at the future. We have long known and been concerned with exercising the body. We have spent hours upon hours learning different skills. But by and large we have neglected emotional training. This is where things will be going. There is so much emotional pain in the world and this offers a real insight into the ways to deal with it. All the current practices try to get the emotional unhealthly back to zero. In the future we will be trying to get people to a higher state of happiness. This will be the way to go.
It is clear that the Tibetian monks are certainly better off emotionally. But this is a a very high price of long years of medition. The person who discovers an effective method for the benefits of medition without the extreme devotion of time will certainly give the world a great gift.
Book Review: Excellent book that binds physiology with psychology
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent book that explains the science behind the brain as it is presently understood in a very clear and extremely engaging way. There are multiple aspects that make this book a worthwhile read:
1) It shows how science is typically done and how scientific progress is made. First some data that are pointing to a different conclusion than the previaling theories emerge and are ignored. Then, over time, scientists driven by theie integrity and perseverance to get to the truth begin accepting the conclusions
2) The relief that the brain is, in fact, very plastic. A fact intrinsically very uplifting on its own
3) That the plasticity takes many forms - brains getting damaged leading to assignement of a different region for the function, functional loss leading to re-use of the brain for a different function, gene-expression based on nurture rather than nature
4) Controlled outcomes that can be had by using this power of plasticity effectively (such as "cures" for dyslexia etc.)
5) The power of meditation to change the brain especially in areas such as decreasing depression and OCD, improving ones intrinsic positivity and allowing one to be compassionate
As a student of science and meditation (Practicing with Erhard Vogel, Journey Into Your Center, Second Edition, The Stress Release Response Meditation : 7 Steps to Triumph Over Stress), I understand and buy into the premise that we are all intrinsically equal (and equally endowed in the grand traditions of Nature) and, therefore, must have love and compassion for fellow beings (human or otherwise). Equally, I believe that the basis for feeling good about onself is not some California thing but is, rather, rooted also in this intrinsic equality and divinity. Ever since I have managed to internalize this perspective my life has improved immensely (physiologically and psychologically). I have stopped having headaches, I have stopped biting my nails (a lifelong habbit) and my productivity at work (signal processing for wireless applications) has increased significantly.
Obviously there is no way I can claim that my perspective change has changed my brain. There are no measured data supporting such a broad claim. Nonetheless, from personal experience I can understand and believe the premise of the book and the underlying positive implications that a plastic brain would entail.