New in Brain Books: "The Brain That Changes Itself"

The first half of 2007 marks the mass media recognition of recent advances in understanding the human brain. Newsweek's cover story on how exercise benefits the brain, the success of Sharon Begley's "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain," and the continuing popularity of Nintendo's Brain Age game for the DS handheld all point to audience interest in both the new wave of brain research and its benefits.

In his new book "The Brain That Changes Itself," research psychiatrist Norman Doidge takes a focused look at one of the drivers of this revolution: neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to rearrange itself.

"The Brain That Changes Itself" is not a rehash of Begley's recent "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain." While Begley concentrates on how individuals can alter their brain through techniques like meditation, Doidge looks at individuals with damaged brains and a variety of therapies that ingenious clinicians and researchers have invented that help the patient's brains work around the injury.

Doidge's website says that in the book "We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, a woman labeled retarded who cured her deficits with brain exercises and now cures those of others, blind people learning to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, painful phantom limbs erased, stroke patients recovering their faculties, children with cerebral palsy learning to move more gracefully, entrenched depression and anxiety disappearing, and lifelong character traits altered."

Neuroplasticity even promises to revive treatments that have fallen out of favor, such as long-term talk therapy.

Reviews have been positive. The New York Times today calls the book "fascinating," Publishers Weekly says "Doidge writes interestingly and engagingly about some of the least understood marvels of the brain," and the Chicago Tribune thinks it is "lucid and absolutely fascinating."