The Brain that Changes Itself

Our human brains adapt the way we use our senses to accomplish tasks. We are able to do phenomenal things because of the neuroplasticity of our brains. For example, “music makes extraordinary demands on the brain”, including playing strings or keys with extreme precise and speed and recognizing these sounds as notes of music (Doidge 426). Doidge points out that, “brain imaging shows that musicians have several area of their brains…that differ from those of nonmusicians” (426-427). The neuroplasticity of the human brain makes the task of playing music possible and easy for trained musicians. The senses of hearing and touch perception have adapted a specialized function. The human brain is incredibly adaptable. As an example, when Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, after twenty months of lying on his back painting, he couldn’t read or paint in any other position for several months (Doidge 427). The same is true for people who wear prism inversion glasses, which flip their perceived world upside down, their brains adapt and when they take the glasses off the real world then appears upside down (427). All of their senses have adopted a new reality of the world and changed the pathways of interpreting their perceptions. This neuroplastic ability to change the brain allowed Michelangelo and people wearing prism inversion glasses to continue to function and accomplish a masterpiece painting or simple daily functioning in an upside down world. Also, taxi drivers and meditators are able to change their brains. Taxi drivers have larger parts of their brains to store spatial representations and meditators increase the size of their brains that fire when paying close attention(427). This allow taxi drivers to do their job, driving a cab, knowing the location and how to get to wherever their passenger may wish to go. And it allows meditators to be able to mediate easier than the average person.