Ebook: Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change your Life

Part five: Strengthening, correction, and rejuvenation through brain training. (Teaching old dogs new tricks: how I began to realize that there are very good uses for a plastic brain ; 29. "Science to the people": bringing this new form of help from the lab into the real world ; 30. Reorganizing your life with a brain fitness goal: daily activities that contribute to the maintenance of a healthy brain ; 31. Programs for brain rejuvenation and brain recovery: features of effective, Internet-delivered, neuroscience-based programs designed to grow, rejuvenate and recover -- then sustain -- brain health ; 32. What does Mike do? How I have organized my life so I can continue to thrive and grow ; 33. Can't Ijust take a pill? Other useful strategies that can contribute to your brain health ; 34. My memory is pretty good, but my back is driving me crazy ...: helping your brain help your body ; 35. Driving matters: navigating the modern world ; 36. Improving yourself: taking a holistic approach to improving your life ; 37. Today is the first day of the rest of your life: begin the transformation top a new, better place in life right now).;What if you had the power to change your brain for the better? In Soft-Wired, Dr. Michael Merzenich--a world authority on brain plasticity--explains how the brain rewires itself across the lifespan, and how you can take control of that process to improve your life. In addition to fascinating descriptions of how your brain has produced your unique memories, skills, quirks, and emotions, Soft-Wired offers sound advice for evaluating your brain and gives clear, specific, scientifically proven guidance for how to rejuvenate, remodel, and reshape your brain to improve it at any age.;Part one: Your brain is a work in progress. (1. Introduction ; What, me, worry? An introduction to cognitive decline ; 3. The gift of adult brain plasticity: David's story ; My Earth is spinning faster and faster: special challenges for developing and sustaining a modern brain ; 5. The great awakening: how I finally saw the light ; 6. The incredible lifelong power of brain plasticity ; 7. Transforming lives: it's all about your brain and your future) -- Part two: Brain plasticity throughout life. (8. The human roller coaster: the rise and fall of human ability across a lifetime ; 9. Cranking up the new machinery: the acquisition of skills and abilities in early life ; 10. How does a brain remodel itself? Ten fundamentals of brain plasticity ; 11. Reaching the mountain top: your brain, in Technicolor ; 12. Slowly sliding back down the slope: how cognitive abilities decline in aging: and imperil our older lives ; 13. Believing in brain plasticity: applying the science to recover a life);Part three: Creating "you." (14. You are special: how your brain remodeled itself to create the unique person you are ; 15. Your parallel universes: growing, sustaioning and controlling all of your brain's worlds ; 17. A typical day in the life of a brain: perceiving, recognizing, recording, pondering, understanding, responding ; 18. Transformation, part deux: how improvements in the "little things" can change the course of a life) -- Part four: The brain in retreat. (19. Losing ground, just by having a birthday: our abilities change as we age ; 20. It's not just about growing oldder: many other things can contribute to our neurological struggles ; 21. When your brain changes, you change: older should be wiser, better, and more balanced, but alas ... ; 22. Machinery in need of repair: physical, chemical and functional changes in older (or wounded) brains ; 23. Why is my brain slowly losing it? Root causes of changes in the aging brain ; 24. Pushing harder on that accelerator, in reverse: how "negative learning" can speed upbrain decline ; 25. Frankly, this subject is depressing me: how other medical issues contribute to and accelerate decline ; 26. Alzheimer's disease: how changes in the brain can lead to a catastrophic collapse ; 27. That troublesome body hooked up to my brain: a healthy brain is crucial for sustaining a healthy body)