Perth TV Guide Australia
The Brain That Changes Itself
Lin Ma
Tuesday 15th June, 2010

It’s the medical discovery that lets a blind man shoot some hoops, gives a stroke victim the chance to play his piano for the first time in 41 years, allows a woman born with literally half a brain to function normally, and sees children with learning disabilities become influential scientists.

You can’t purchase it because it’s free. We all have it. And best of all, you house this ability from cradle to the grave. It’s called ‘neuroplasticity’ and it’s a phenomenon that is leaving even the most seasoned neuroscientist scratching their cranium in utter bewilderment.

The Brain That Changes Itself is more than a documentary and a book written by Dr Norman Doige. It’s a very important glimpse into, what seems to be, the next phase of brain science across all fields like rehabilitation, cognitive behaviour, medicine, neuroscience and research. If you thought the potential of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell research was cool (this is where your own cells are reprogrammed to become whatever cell you need it to be), wait till you get a load of this.

Traditionally, the brain was thought to reach a certain pinnacle of potential or growth - after which all neural connections would become set in their ways until you died. So, if you had a stroke, brain damage, or were simply born with some kind of brain disorder, there was absolutely nothing you could do about it. You were stuck with it, tough luck. But now, scientists are discovering that the brain has an amazing capacity to reprogram and “rewire” itself, even in the most horrific of circumstances like trauma, war casualties, and amputations.

Narrated and presented by the contagiously enthusiastic Dr Doige, the documentary goes from compelling case studies of people who are “rewiring” their brain despite their situations, to leading scientists who are championing neuroplasticity. While this school of thought is quite trendy and opens up much hope for well, practically everybody, it could also help to reveal the causes of other disorders like autism and Asperger Syndrome.

The Brain That Changes Itself ebbs and flows like an Oliver Sacks' book: there’s enough scientific jargon to make you feel smart, but it's the mystifying (and almost miraculous) personal accounts that make you want to pound your fists in the air with excitement. Brain science never looked so cool. 


HIGHLIGHT: THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF
Globe and Mail
Henrietta Walmark
November 21, 2008

"What we have here is a new way of looking at the brain," director Mike Sheerin (Bravo Company: Kandahar, The Secret Mulroney Tapes) said as he described tonight's documentary, which he also co-wrote with Norman Doidge based on the Toronto psychiatrist's bestselling book about revolutionary discoveries of the human brain's plasticity and stunning ability to transform itself.

"It is, in the correct use of the phrase, a paradigm shift; it is a new way of looking at things," the filmmaker said. "Once you do make that shift, all of a sudden there is a wonderful world of opportunity that didn't exist before. In the film, we visit with some of these opportunities, with some of these people whose lives have been positively affected by this new way of looking at the brain."

Midway through filming, Sheerin said to himself, "I think this is the most important documentary I have made so far because it affects everybody. There is not a single person on this planet who is not in some way affected by how we view the brain.

"The ramifications of this new way of looking at the brain are going to be very important down the road," he added. "Maybe not right now. Right now, some of these case studies that we look at seem almost too fantastical. They're not actually within our realm of experience, but 10 years down the road they'll have built on these sorts of experiments and research. Eventually it will be commonplace in terms of how we treat everything."

JOHN DOYLE
Globe and Mail
December 4, 2008

The Nature of Things - The Brain that Changes (Newsworld, 10 p.m.) is a repeat of last week's excellent program, which explores the revolutionary science of "neuroplasticity" - a concept that expands not just our knowledge of how our brains work, but also how we use them. For centuries, the human brain has been thought of as incapable of fundamental change. People suffering from neurological defects, brain damage or strokes were usually written off as "hopeless cases," according to the program. But recent and continuing research into the human brain is radically changing how we look at the potential for neurological recovery.