I am not a neuroscientist, or a psychologist. I’m a teacher, which is a far cry from both, but I study this topic often as it applies to children as well as the adults I train. What neuroplasticity ultimately is saying is that not only can environmental factors influence brain structure and organization but that the mind itself can also do the same without any outside factor. In some ways, yes neuroplasticity is simply a big word for “learning.” But it’s a word that has broken down the barrier that the brain doesn’t change in structure or organization.

It does change, and that change is more than simply “learning.” Learning is the process by which neuroplasticity occurs. The same can be said for the idea that simply being mindful of your thinking alters how the brain is wired and reacts to certain stimuli. You can give someone a pill for OCD, but it does not change the behavior of the brain. It simply counteracts the overactivity in certain areas by affecting neurotransmitters. But if a person can be aware of their thoughts, and “learn” to respond appropriately the over activity in brain areas that cause OCD can be rewired and other areas of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex grow in response to the mindfulness of the overactive cingulate. Yes, this is also “learning” but once the learning is complete the brain is different.

The point is that neuroplasticity has become a new buzzword for what neuroscience has always revealed – that the brain adapts to new situations. Doidge is a prime example of this, as he claims neuroplasticity is an exciting new discovery while simultaneously discussing how it was acknowledged as far back as Broca’s work on aphasia.

The history and discovery of neuroplasticily is detailed in Norman Doidge’s 2007 book “The Brain That Changes Itself”. I am not surprised that vaughanbell did not mention it. It contradicts everything he concluded about neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is functional and structural reorganization at the neuronal level, which includes synaptic plasticity, synaptogenesis, neuronal migration and neurogenesis.

David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel won the 1981 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine for their work on the developement of the visual cortex. Initially, they ‘”firmly believed that once cortical connections were established in their mature form, they stayed in place permanently.” Wiesel now accepts adult plasticity and has gracefully acknowledged in print that for a long time he was wrong …” (Doidge, pl 61-2).

Like many scientific discoveries, it has and will be misunderstood and mis-used, but that does not make it wrong.

Keep an open mind and learn, it will help your brain stay plastic which, as you age, keeps life interesting and may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

The other valuable change that the popularisation of the term has initiated is to support the spread of the notion that mental states are “real” and can not be dismissed as being “just” in the mind.

While mind/brain is a fascinating and probably un-unravellable intervweaving of meanings, it is radically new in some culturally influential circles to have the “mental” reflected so graphically in the “physical”.

Echoing Ross, I see these popular imprecisions as a stumbling first stage in the incorporation of this new take on mind/body into the wider, non-specialist culture. We still don’t have an accurate popular language around IT; “neo-neuro-speak” has a lonnngggg way to go.

As to the assertion that historical idea about brain being “fixed” is a myth, let me tell you about a personal experience. A very close family member suffered a stroke. Her son, a successful medical doctor, explained that because part of her brain was damaged, functions that reside in that part would never be regained. You may be right that this notion is really a myth, but it was a widely held belief and the publicity surrounding the term “neuroplasticity” has done well to counter it.