Michael Merzenich studies neuroplasticity — the brain’s powerful ability to change itself and adapt — and ways we might make use of that plasticity to heal injured brains and enhance the skills in healthy ones.
Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain’s incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He’s researching ways to harness the brain’s plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.
Why you should listen to him:
One of the foremost researchers of neuroplasticity, Michael Merzenich’s work has shown that the brain retains its ability to alter itself well into adulthood — suggesting that brains with injuries or disease might be able to recover function, even later in life. He has also explored the way the senses are mapped in regions of the brain and the way sensations teach the brain to recognize new patterns.
Merzenich wants to bring the powerful plasticity of the brain into practical use through technologies and methods that harness it to improve learning. He founded Scientific Learning Corporation, which markets and distributes educational software for children based on models of brain plasticity. He is co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Posit Science, which creates “brain training” software also based on his research.
Merzenich is professor emeritus of neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco.
“Merzenich is perhaps the most recognizable figure in brain plasticity and how one develops competence through experience and learning.”
Dominique M. Durand
(Source: TED)
Prof Michael Merzenich ‘The plasticity revolution & how it affects you’ at Mind & Its Potential (2012)
How can brain plasticity contribute to self-development?
How does culture change brains (and brains change culture)?
How can we harness brain plasticity to overcome special neurological or psychiatric burdens?
Leading a healthy, “plasticity-science” informed life
(Source: Think and Be Happy)
Think faster focus better and remember moreRewiring our brain to stay younger…
ABSTRACT
Explore the brain’s amazing ability to change throughout a person’s life. This phenomenon—called neuroplasticty—is the science behind brain fitness, and it has been called one of the most extraordinary scientific discoveries of the 20th century.
PBS had recently aired this special, The Brain Fitness Program, which explains the brain’s complexities in a way that both scientists and people with no scientific background can appreciate.
This is opportunity to learn more about how our minds work—and to find out more about the latest in cutting-edge brain research, from the founder of Posit Science and creator of the Brain Fitness Program software, Dr. Michael Merzenich.
(Source: Google Tech Talks)
