Bret Harding
Hello gentle reader. My February and March have been filled with joy – bit of Springsteen in concert here, bit of home renovation there (both observational activities for me) and lots of moving forward with general stuff of life.
By far and away the most fascinating conversation of my time on this earth (not counting the chats 10 year old me had with the lady at the golf course who let me buy cigarettes for my ‘Dad’; or at the age of 16, the man at the newsagents where I bought my ‘Dad’ gentlemen’s magazines of questionable origin and purpose) occurred a little over a week ago, when I had the extraordinary good fortune to have a lengthy chat with Professor Michael Merzenich, Professor Emeritus Neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco.
A little background – knowing I would be talking with Professor Merzenich, I took time out to watch the first of three doco’s in the series Redesign My Brain featuring Todd Sampson; advertising genius and regular on the Gruen series of shows with Will Anderson. The basic premise of the show is that Todd will be tested to benchmark a series of neurological functions, after which he will follow Professor Merzenich’s lead and exercise his brain in line with the good Professor’s brain plasticity training.
Spoiler alert.
It works a treat. Amongst the range of fabulous skills Todd develops and successfully nurtures are juggling (from never having juggled to a reasonable level of proficiency) and memorising an entire deck of cards (obviously, in order, after they have been shuffled … I memorised a fresh deck but the shuffling thing sort of slowed me up a bit).
In talking Professor Merzenich, one is greeted by a man with an obvious passion for his subject. Friendly, genuine, he answered questions put to him without hesitation and in an open and honest manner. He displays an infectious enthusiasm for his work and when you get into it, it’s not hard to see why.
Brain plasticity, neuroplasticity, call it what you will, seems in essence to be the study of the brain’s ability to ‘adapt, improvise, overcome’ and the example we briefly discussed was the simultaneous development of cochlear implants in three separate studies across three separate continents (US, Europe and Australia). In this situation, the most extraordinary of outcomes was encountered.
All three systems employed what was described as being fairly ‘crude’ structures to develop contact between the outside world of sound and the brain’s capability to discern sound. All three systems utilised different albeit similar frameworks to complete the intended task and all three produced different output messages.
However, here’s the kicker – it didn’t matter. It was discovered that the human brain received all three different outputs and adapted to successfully process the synthesised sound.
I asked about whether or not there was an ‘aha!!!’ moment and it turns out there have been many, beginning as a younger scientist 35 years ago when a small element of brain plasticity was first discerned, to 25 years ago when pet training was used to show how animals – and later humans – could both learn and teach these skills and many other moments between now and then.
Professor Merzenich has a book available now on Amazon, see the link below, which better shares the heart of what has become his life’s work; I have my copy and will likely surface in a couple of weeks with a sharper ‘can do’ attitude than anything I have thus far managed to produce.
I can’t wait to Redesign My Brain.
It would also be helpful if the team could put something together that makes me younger, thinner and more handsome; I guess a more complete and enjoyable me will have to do for now.
I commend this man and his work to you.
Enjoy
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Merzenich
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Sampson
www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/redesign-my-brain-with-todd-sampson/
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