I just finished “The Mind and The Brain” by Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley and I highly recommend it. The thesis is quite interesting and, at least initially, reasonably supported with research. The authors attempt to prove, not only the concept of adult neuroplasticity but also provide a mechanism for how neuroplasticity might work that leads to a potential reframing of the hard problem of consciousness and a strident rejection of scientific materialism.

Neuroplasticity describes the brain’s ability to rewire itself. Rewiring is the mechanism by which a brain both learns and forgets. Neuroplasticity is taken for granted in children. Most people are aware children go through stages of learning. If a child’s brain is monitored with fMRI and PET scans, scientists can see neuronal groups forming, reforming, strengthening and weakening. The mantra, based on the Canadian Psychologist Donald Hebb’s research, is “the neurons that fire together, wire together”. In other words, concepts are represented by groups of neurons that fire together in reaction to external or internal stimuli. The more these groupings fire together the stronger the connections and the more likely they will fire together in the future. As a child learns, neuronal groupings are formed and either strengthened or weakened depending on their success in promoting their own firing. If the concept is used often, the grouping is strengthened if it is used infrequently the grouping is weakened. Through many iterations the child’s brain, starting with relatively few and simple groupings, learns and rewires itself to account for more and more knowledge. As the wirings increase in sophistication the child’s fluency with the represented concepts is improved. For example, when a child first learns to walk she must use all her powers of concentration to succeed but, with success comes a strengthening of the neuronal groupings that provide the body with it’s directions. The brain literally wires itself to account for all the variables necessary for the child to walk and even run without having to think about the process.

So far, none of this is particularly new. However, starting in the eighties scientists started to question dogma arguing once a brain reaches a given level of maturity it’s ability to rewire itself is severely limited. Scientists acknowledged adults ability to learn new concepts but it was assumed this was mostly limited to the mental realm and, even then, hampered by limited neuronal real estate taken up by previous knowledge. Schwartz and Begley show how research by maverick scientists question then eventually disprove the idea neuroplasticity is as limited in the adult brain. Starting with monkeys and eventually moving to humans, scientists show adult brains rewiring themselves, allowing people to recover from Strokes, Obssessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and a myriad of other problems. Schwartz, a research professor of psychiatry at UCLA, was faced with the challenge of designing a behavioral methodology for treating patients with OCD. By refining his methodology and thinking, Schwartz creates a novel theory of mind leading to his emphatic rejection of scientific materialism.

Tomorrow I’ll attend to Schwartz’s methodology and his underlying theory.