Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
by Sharon Begley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sharon BegleyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-11-20
ISBN: 0345479890
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780345479891
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
Book Review: Very insightful!
Summary: 5 Stars
Sharon Begley's "Train Your Mind Change Your Brain" does a fine job of exploring the science of neuroplasticity which upends long thought beliefs that the brain becomes hardwired early in life and can't be changed other than through physical techniques like medication, etc. Rather, by concentrating one's thinking in certain ways, actual physical changes can be effected in the brain. That is, the brain affects the mind and the mind affects the brain, a two-way process. Plus, she shows how actual scientific testing proves this, both in animals and humans.
She sees Buddhism as an example of neuroplasticity in action.
The book offers a lot of things to ponder. These are the ones which stuck with me:
1. Unlike most other religions, there is no antagonism between Buddhism and science. Experience comes first, then reason, then scripture.
2. A shrunken hippocampus in the brain exists with depression, but not sure which came first. The result being the inability to recognize novelty.
3. The brain's cortical representation of the reading finger of proficient Braille readers is enlarged at the expense of other fingers. Such reader's brain's visual cortex is active, not just the somatosensory cortex, hence brain plasticity.
4. The loss of vision early in childhood, or before, makes peripheral hearing sharper, just as loss of hearing makes peripheral vision sharper.
5. Dyslexia can be at least partially ameliorated by behavior remediation actually repairing left temporal brain region dysfunction, therefore plasticity of the brain.
6. People who have lost a limb undergo some brain reorganization. For example, a missing hand can generate an itch relieved by scratching one's lower face. Also, stroke victims can benefit like from putting one's good arm in a sling to force the person to use the bad arm, resulting in repairing the brain by using the mind to concentrate on using the bad arm.
7. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) patients, by certain mental action can change the brain chemistry thereby preventing OCD.
8. For piano players, mentally rehearsing can activate the same brain circuits as actually physically rehearsing.
9. Genes can be silent or active, with the environment capable of activating the silent ones. For example, a child with an attentive mother will likely also become an attentive parent. However, a child with an inattentive mother will likely be an inattentive parent, however can also become an attentive parent if adopted later by an attentive mother.
10. Levels of brain hormones, oxytocin and vasopressin, can affect social bonding and parental care. Things like being very poor in a very rich country can cause a lack of these hormones, for example.
11. Cognitive functions (concentrating) can trigger emotional functions. For example, with Buddhist meditation it is possible to eliminate emotions of anger, hate, jealousy, envy, and greed.
12. "The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", used by therapists, considers normality to be not having such disorders. However, no concentration of positive mental states like happiness, contentment, curiosity, drive, engagement and compassion. Why?
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Summary of Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves
In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Newsweek science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to reveal that, contrary to popular belief, we have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. Recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity?the ability of the brain to change in response to experience?reveal that the brain is capable of altering its structure and function, and even of generating new neurons, a power we retain well into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, compensate for disabilities, rewire itself to overcome dyslexia, and break cycles of depression and OCD. And as scientists are learning from studies performed on Buddhist monks, it is not only the outside world that can change the brain, so can the mind and, in particular, focused attention through the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness.With her gift for making science accessible, meaningful, and compelling, Sharon Begley illuminates a profound shift in our understanding of how the brain and the mind interact and takes us to the leading edge of a revolution in what it means to be human.
?There are two great things about this book. One is that it shows us how nothing about our brains is set in stone. The other is that it is written by Sharon Begley, one of the best science writers around. Begley is superb at framing the latest facts within the larger context of the field. . . . This is a terrific book.?
?Robert M. Sapolsky, author of Why Zebras Don?t Get Ulcers
?Excellent . . . elegant and lucid prose . . . an open mind here will be rewarded.?
?Discover magazine
?A strong dose of hope along with a strong does of science and Buddhist thought.?
?The San Diego Union-Tribune
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