---
product_id: 64677175
title: "The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science"
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---

# 4.6/5 from 5,169 readers Top #25 in Biology Books Ranked #5,445 in Books overall The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

**Price:** ₩35283
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## Summary

> 🧠 Unlock your brain’s potential—before everyone else does!

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
- **How much does it cost?** ₩35283 with free shipping
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- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Penguin Group Quality:** Published by a trusted leader in thought-provoking, high-impact literature.
- • **Proven Bestseller Status:** Join thousands who rated it 4.6 stars—your next must-read for personal and professional growth.
- • **Cross-Disciplinary Appeal:** Perfect for managers, creatives, and lifelong learners eager to unlock cognitive potential.
- • **Inspiring Real-Life Stories:** Transform your mindset with compelling tales of brain plasticity and triumph.
- • **Neuroscience Made Accessible:** Complex brain science explained in clear, engaging language for all readers.

## Overview

This acclaimed book, ranked #24 in Biology and boasting a 4.6-star rating from over 5,000 readers, demystifies brain science through captivating stories of personal transformation. Published by Penguin Group, it’s a top choice for professionals seeking to harness neuroplasticity for success.

## Description

OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD 'A remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain' Oliver Sacks 'Utterly wonderful . . . without question one of the most important books about the brain you will ever read; yet it is beautifully written, immensely approachable, and full of humanity' Iain McGilchrist MA, author of The Master and His Emissary Meet the ninety-year-old doctor who is still practicing medicine, the stroke victim who learned to move and talk again and the woman with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole. All these people had their lives transformed by the remarkable discovery that our brains can repair themselves through the power of positive thinking. Here bestselling author, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge reveals the secrets of the cutting-edge science of 'neuroplasticity'. He introduces incredible case histories - blind people helped to see, IQs raised and memories sharpened - and tells the stories of the maverick scientists who are overturning centuries of assumptions about the brain. This inspiring book will leave you with a sense of wonder at the capabilities of the mind, and the self-healing power that lies within all of us.

Review: Excellent - Norman Doidge, a Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst has done a great work in the field of “Neuroplasticity” which means ability (flexibility!) of the brain to change. The Brain that Changes Itself, is considered to be 1st part of two volumes by the author (2nd Book : The Brain’s way of Healing), in which he has discussed in detail regarding several recent research articles, interviewed hundreds of Doctors and paramedical persons and patients, to understand how neuroplasticity works in different patients and how it can be utilized in treating dreadful, progressive and degenerative neurological diseases. In very first Chapter, author has described about a woman who was unable to walk properly and difficulty in marinating the balance due to damage to inner ear (Inner ear has two parts : Cochlea: helps in hearing and Vestibular apparatus : helps to maintain equilibrium) because of some drugs which she had to take. Paul Bach-Y-Rita, treating doctor designed the helmet like device with accelerometer sensors, to be worn by patient, which sends the signals to computer which ultimately is transmitted to a strip with electrodes applied on tongue. And ultimately, helping the patient to balance the body and prevent the fall. In short, instead of inner ear, the tongue was helping the patient to send the data about position of body to brain. Most exciting thing in this experiment was that after using and practicing with the device, patient developed the ability to maintain balance without using it, proving that somehow brain learned to accepts the signals about the balance from different part than usual and decode them too. Author Norman Doidge, describes in very lucid and understandable way, about complex neurophysiology. He defies the notion of One function one location and it work like machine (Hence, if there is a damage to any area in brain, person will lose the ability to execute that function, permanently, as Neurons cant get repaired) according to which there are different areas in our brain doing specific predefined function. Author puts lots of evidences based on researches done by the different scientists in the field of Neuroplasticity. Concluding, even though the areas have fixed functions but areas (or neurons making that area) can take up the functions of other areas (or neurons). “Neurons that fire together wire together “. “Neurons that fire apart wire apart.” Author describes astonishing examples of patients who have lost / damaged or didn’t have some part of their brain, and were destined to remain lose the functions normally, goes on to learn and perform those functions and live (near) normal life, and which is only possible by some other part of the brain is trained to learn that functions by gradual mental and physical exercise. Author has also described, the wonderful work done by Merzenick Michael, who developed a computer Program Fast ForWord, which helps autistic children to get cured through regular intense neurological exercise in the form of computer game/program. Author talks about taste and Love neurophysiology by explaining the pleasure systems and how plasticity plays role in person falling in love and falling for particular taste (sexual orientation), and ultimately why so many people in today’s world are getting addicted to pornography, which gives short lasting pleasure involving the role of oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins. Learned Nonuse, the term used when patient learns not to use particular part of his/her body because his/her brain is not receiving the signals from the damaged brain (due to stroke, trauma etc.). Neuroplasticians have been using Constraint Induced therapy for cure of this patients, where patients are forced to use their affected limbs/parts, resulting in regaining the functions. Author describes the concept of “Critical Period”, the time during which child has to get exposed to particular stimulus resulting in development of emotions, feeling and also helps in developing memories. Hence, children raised in orphanage may have higher chances of autism, anxiety, depression, amnesia. There is a chapter in book, which describe the groundbreaking work done by Ramachandran, aka Sherlock Holmes of Neuroscience, in the field of Phantom limb/pain, where patient feels or experience pain the limb which has been amputated. Now it is widely accepted after Ramachandran work, that its because of the neuroplasticity, i.e. change in the brain map after amputation leading to the condition. Imagination, as one of the chapter in the book, shows how just imagining about particular action changes the brain and would fire the same set of neurons as the actions being physically performed and ultimately affecting the plasticity of the human brain. Visually blind people as they are deprived of the stimulus from the eyes to the visual cortex, which later on start sensing touch from the hands. Another amazing case discussed in the book, is about Michelle, who was born without left cerebral hemisphere, who happens to develop savant calculation skills and wonderful memory about calendar events. Whose only hemisphere , right one, develops the maps and functions, which are normally done by left hemisphere, all thanks to the plasticity. To conclude, it’s a book, which has lot of technical information but written in such a manner that anyone from any field can easily understand it. And, most importantly the concept of neuroplasticity is going to change how we used to see and deal with brain injury and diseases.
Review: Amazing information about the hidden and magical potential of the hardware of our brain, and examples of ways to unlock it - Our brain has amazing power to adapt, modify, train itself- and these powers remain grossly under-utilised as most of the people are not aware of it. Example 1: video signals can be fed from an electronic camera to brain through tongue, brain on its own figure it out that the signals coming from tongue are not corresponding to taste but rather of vision and reroute the signals to the area of the brain that processes visual signals (from eyes) where the signals are decoded and person can see the image being captured by video camera- without using eyes!!! Great potential for blind population which has blindness due to eyes problems (and not due to brain itself- like in stroke)! Example 2: paralysed people can regain movement of affected part! it is demonstrated through experiments that movement can be learnt again. when the brain area controlling movement is damaged due to stroke or haemorrhage, neighbouring brain area can take over its role provided regular training is given for a period of time. Real reason of a part remaining impacted is that the people shift the burden to other limb and do not attempt to make the affected part work after a while believing that it can't be used forever! Why to read this book: none of us is having a perfect brain. we or people we love may be struggling with brain handicaps without being aware of it - and which can be easily addressed provided they are identified! we may attribute many of our weaknesses to lack of interest, effort, potential, etc. We are good at finding some reason, answer to observed phenomenon. we accept easy explanations... for example, if a student is poor in maths.. usual explanation is: he doesn't put enough effort/ he doesn't like math/ he doesn't have potential for math, etc. even seemingly normal people may be having difficulty in certain areas and are not even aware about it- like some student may be having problem in maths, like one of the scientist's story in this book, though he/she may be bright in other few subjects. This may be attributed to a small area in the brain which needs to be strengthened. and when exercises aimed at that particular area of the brain are undertaken difficulty in maths problem evaporated! this approach is very different from the one which aims to train the brain as a whole. Here the cause of poor performance in specific domain (like maths) is pin pointed to specific area/region of the brain and then that specific brain region is targeted with very specific exercises (like, clock reading exercise where the clock has 10 hands instead of usual 3 of hour, minute, second).

## Features

- PENGUIN GROUP

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,088 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #2 in Biology Books |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 5,207 Reviews |

## Images

![The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81wmQXYQZBL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent
*by S***D on 16 April 2019*

Norman Doidge, a Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst has done a great work in the field of “Neuroplasticity” which means ability (flexibility!) of the brain to change. The Brain that Changes Itself, is considered to be 1st part of two volumes by the author (2nd Book : The Brain’s way of Healing), in which he has discussed in detail regarding several recent research articles, interviewed hundreds of Doctors and paramedical persons and patients, to understand how neuroplasticity works in different patients and how it can be utilized in treating dreadful, progressive and degenerative neurological diseases. In very first Chapter, author has described about a woman who was unable to walk properly and difficulty in marinating the balance due to damage to inner ear (Inner ear has two parts : Cochlea: helps in hearing and Vestibular apparatus : helps to maintain equilibrium) because of some drugs which she had to take. Paul Bach-Y-Rita, treating doctor designed the helmet like device with accelerometer sensors, to be worn by patient, which sends the signals to computer which ultimately is transmitted to a strip with electrodes applied on tongue. And ultimately, helping the patient to balance the body and prevent the fall. In short, instead of inner ear, the tongue was helping the patient to send the data about position of body to brain. Most exciting thing in this experiment was that after using and practicing with the device, patient developed the ability to maintain balance without using it, proving that somehow brain learned to accepts the signals about the balance from different part than usual and decode them too. Author Norman Doidge, describes in very lucid and understandable way, about complex neurophysiology. He defies the notion of One function one location and it work like machine (Hence, if there is a damage to any area in brain, person will lose the ability to execute that function, permanently, as Neurons cant get repaired) according to which there are different areas in our brain doing specific predefined function. Author puts lots of evidences based on researches done by the different scientists in the field of Neuroplasticity. Concluding, even though the areas have fixed functions but areas (or neurons making that area) can take up the functions of other areas (or neurons). “Neurons that fire together wire together “. “Neurons that fire apart wire apart.” Author describes astonishing examples of patients who have lost / damaged or didn’t have some part of their brain, and were destined to remain lose the functions normally, goes on to learn and perform those functions and live (near) normal life, and which is only possible by some other part of the brain is trained to learn that functions by gradual mental and physical exercise. Author has also described, the wonderful work done by Merzenick Michael, who developed a computer Program Fast ForWord, which helps autistic children to get cured through regular intense neurological exercise in the form of computer game/program. Author talks about taste and Love neurophysiology by explaining the pleasure systems and how plasticity plays role in person falling in love and falling for particular taste (sexual orientation), and ultimately why so many people in today’s world are getting addicted to pornography, which gives short lasting pleasure involving the role of oxytocin, dopamine and endorphins. Learned Nonuse, the term used when patient learns not to use particular part of his/her body because his/her brain is not receiving the signals from the damaged brain (due to stroke, trauma etc.). Neuroplasticians have been using Constraint Induced therapy for cure of this patients, where patients are forced to use their affected limbs/parts, resulting in regaining the functions. Author describes the concept of “Critical Period”, the time during which child has to get exposed to particular stimulus resulting in development of emotions, feeling and also helps in developing memories. Hence, children raised in orphanage may have higher chances of autism, anxiety, depression, amnesia. There is a chapter in book, which describe the groundbreaking work done by Ramachandran, aka Sherlock Holmes of Neuroscience, in the field of Phantom limb/pain, where patient feels or experience pain the limb which has been amputated. Now it is widely accepted after Ramachandran work, that its because of the neuroplasticity, i.e. change in the brain map after amputation leading to the condition. Imagination, as one of the chapter in the book, shows how just imagining about particular action changes the brain and would fire the same set of neurons as the actions being physically performed and ultimately affecting the plasticity of the human brain. Visually blind people as they are deprived of the stimulus from the eyes to the visual cortex, which later on start sensing touch from the hands. Another amazing case discussed in the book, is about Michelle, who was born without left cerebral hemisphere, who happens to develop savant calculation skills and wonderful memory about calendar events. Whose only hemisphere , right one, develops the maps and functions, which are normally done by left hemisphere, all thanks to the plasticity. To conclude, it’s a book, which has lot of technical information but written in such a manner that anyone from any field can easily understand it. And, most importantly the concept of neuroplasticity is going to change how we used to see and deal with brain injury and diseases.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amazing information about the hidden and magical potential of the hardware of our brain, and examples of ways to unlock it
*by A***Y on 24 June 2017*

Our brain has amazing power to adapt, modify, train itself- and these powers remain grossly under-utilised as most of the people are not aware of it. Example 1: video signals can be fed from an electronic camera to brain through tongue, brain on its own figure it out that the signals coming from tongue are not corresponding to taste but rather of vision and reroute the signals to the area of the brain that processes visual signals (from eyes) where the signals are decoded and person can see the image being captured by video camera- without using eyes!!! Great potential for blind population which has blindness due to eyes problems (and not due to brain itself- like in stroke)! Example 2: paralysed people can regain movement of affected part! it is demonstrated through experiments that movement can be learnt again. when the brain area controlling movement is damaged due to stroke or haemorrhage, neighbouring brain area can take over its role provided regular training is given for a period of time. Real reason of a part remaining impacted is that the people shift the burden to other limb and do not attempt to make the affected part work after a while believing that it can't be used forever! Why to read this book: none of us is having a perfect brain. we or people we love may be struggling with brain handicaps without being aware of it - and which can be easily addressed provided they are identified! we may attribute many of our weaknesses to lack of interest, effort, potential, etc. We are good at finding some reason, answer to observed phenomenon. we accept easy explanations... for example, if a student is poor in maths.. usual explanation is: he doesn't put enough effort/ he doesn't like math/ he doesn't have potential for math, etc. even seemingly normal people may be having difficulty in certain areas and are not even aware about it- like some student may be having problem in maths, like one of the scientist's story in this book, though he/she may be bright in other few subjects. This may be attributed to a small area in the brain which needs to be strengthened. and when exercises aimed at that particular area of the brain are undertaken difficulty in maths problem evaporated! this approach is very different from the one which aims to train the brain as a whole. Here the cause of poor performance in specific domain (like maths) is pin pointed to specific area/region of the brain and then that specific brain region is targeted with very specific exercises (like, clock reading exercise where the clock has 10 hands instead of usual 3 of hour, minute, second).

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fascinating read!
*by S***L on 1 September 2022*

The book gets interesting with each chapter. The whole idea of brain plasticity and the various contexts it has been put in and explored is just fascinating. Since it's specifically scientific material, you need to have some background to connect to it and the fascination actually comes from knowing what has been claimed till date and how it gets debunked in these stories. This was my first detailed read in brain plasticity so don't have much to compare with but definitely builds a good base to explore further. Just one thing that sets me off is, there is more of the story and less of the research. Which is good to begin connecting and getting in the flow but after some point you start to look for more subject matter and less of stories. But again, the disappointment is possibly a result of setting wrong expectations, when the title clearly says, "Stories of Personal Triumph". There are some really interesting findings that can be used even in day to day life to make good use of mental capacity, especially when it comes to learning new skills. The other good part is the extreme conditions where the methods have been deployed and have shown results; builds a strong case for hope when it comes to cases of long-lasting damage done to the brain or any organ. Overall a good read!

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