This month psychiatrist Norman Doidge returns to the Brain Science Podcast to discuss his new book The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers, which is a follow-up to his best-seller The Brain That Changes Itself (BSP 26). In this interview Dr. Doidge and I focus on the underlying principles of brain plasticity and their clinical implications. Although brain plasticity is well-established in the research community it has not yet fully penetrated clinical medicine where old views, which seen the brain as largely fixed in adulthood, make it difficult for new approaches to reach most patients.

Unfortunately, brain plasticity is an easy target for hucksters and others selling unproven methods, but Dr. Doidge has done extensive research into the methods featured in this book. One of the obstacles that we did not discuss is that these methods require active participation, not passively taking expensive new drugs.

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References

• The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplasticity by Norman Doidge

• The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science, by Norman Doidge

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, by Thomas S. Kuhn

• BSP 10: Introduction to Brain Plasticity

• BSP 26: Interview with Norman Doidge about The Brain That Changes Itself

• BSP 105: Interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich, pioneer of neuroplsticity

• BSP 113: Neuroplasticity and Healing with the Dalai Lama

• See the episode transcript for more links and references

Announcements

• Next month's episode will be an interview with Dr. Michael Gazzaniga talking about his latest book Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience.

• I will be speaking at the 74th Annual Meeting of the American Humanist Association, which is scheduled for May 7-10, 2015 in Denver, Colorado.

• I have recently updated my other website at virginiacampbellmd.com and I would appreciate your feedback.

• Reminder: the 25 most recent episodes of the Brain Science Podcast are always free, but Premium subscribers have unlimited access to all back episodes and transcripts. The Brain Science Podcast Mobile App is FREE. It is a great way to consume both free and premium content (since this will not appear in iTunes or other podcasting apps).

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