Book Reviews: Plasticity and the Brain

Probably you think, as I did, that the brain is a fixed object, hardwired without recourse for repair, much less functional changes. This has been the position of dogmatic science for nearly a century. This position has had its impact not only on sufferers of brain trauma but also on the philosophy of the mind, and the worldview of the public in general. After all, if the brain is fixed, then ....

Determinism and its stepchild, monism, have locked the scientific community into the parasitic and unprovable metaphysics of materialism. And materialism, of course, requires that the mind not be separable from the brain, but to be a material part of it.

The question not askable for 80 years is: can the mind change the brain? In fact, in the early 20th century experimenters found evidence of plasticity in the brains of animals. Would this evidence be pursued? Or would it be suppressed due to its diametric apposition to the accepted "scientific" dogma of the day?

There are three books on this subject that I will review here. Perhaps the most comprehensive historical approach is that of J.M.Schwartz, in his book, "The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force", Harper, 2002. Schwartz is a researcher whose experience spans the decades of controversial findings, and the establishment's resistance to them. His story includes the fame and infamy and recovered fame of researcher Edward Taub, who made discoveries that were tarnished by the infiltration of PETA activist, Alex Pacheco, who set out to destroy Taub and animal experimentation in toto. This story alone is worth the read.

But the real value of this book - and the other two as well - is the revelation that not only is the brain plastic, it is not fixed, period. The brain map is not a permanent feature of the mental landscape. Not only that, the mind is fully capable of changing the map, altering the mental landscape. I.e., mind over matter. Schwartz proposes that there is a quantum mechanic type of relationship between the mind and the brain, and in his development of the history of his concept, he writes a very accessible review of quantum theory, including the collapse of Schrodinger's Wave equation, which is related to part of his theory.

The quantum problem of matter being influenced by observation, i.e. consciousness, leads to the conceptual intertwining of matter-energy-consciousness on a scientific level. Within that context, Schwartz proposes a mental force which is real and potentially measurable, and which resides over and dominates the brain. This hypothesis is untested yet compelling. The intial evidence comes from the new treatment for Obsessive-Compusive Disorder - OCD - which is resolvable in high proportions of sufferers by self-control of thinking pathways, with subsequent remapping of the brain. Mind over matter.

The second book, "The Brain That Changes Itself", Norman Doidge, Penguin, 2007, covers much of the same ground as Schwartz has covered, but is shorter and less comprehensive.

The third book is a technical text-type book of masterwork proportions. "Biophysics of Computation",Oxford University Press,1999, by Christof Koch, is the first attempt to combine the disciplines of neuronic biophysics with computation and information theory (and not a little electrical engineering). Koch is a well known researcher in this field. His book is targeted as a text for seniors in neurobiology and post-grad studies in the field, and is jammed with details that many might fear, but that I, myself, crave.

To pull out the most significant departures from older bio-cant, Koch delineates not just the plasticity of neuronal connection, but he also mathematically models the incredible, previously unknown internal complexity within a neuron. In short, a neuron is not a single connecting wire, it is capable of complex calculations such as addition and subtraction; it can contain logic circuits such as as AND-NOT gates (NANDs to digital designers), and flip-flops, the basis for digital computing in PCs. It can acquire multitudes of connections, and effectively become a self-modifying state machine (my words not his). All this along with the urge to rewire itself constantly in response to usage makes the biology of neurons an open field, full of questions.

In short, I recommend only the first book, by Schwartz, for those interested in a non-technical, accessible overview of both the history and the state of brain plasticity. But I do seriously recommend it.

For those with a technical bent, Koch's book is just the thing.