The Changing Brain

Michael Valenzuela

“There is a saying that you can never dip your toe into the same river twice. The same applies to the brain because at a quite fundamental level it is continuously changing. Indeed, it is somewhat incredible that throughout our lives we are able to maintain a more-or-less unified concept of who we are given there is little constancy of substance to anchor this most basic of notions. Beyond this philosophical curiosity, there has accumulated a formidable body of science specifically focused on how experience can affect the brain. Neuroplasticity in particular refers to a range of biological changes which occur in the brain in response to experience or environmental stimuli. These changes vary vastly in terms of scale and timecourse — from molecular cascades that can be triggered in a matter of hours, to whole-brain cortical network reorganisation which can evolve over months if not years …”