Brain Plasticity

By: Dr. Suzanne LaCombe & Terry McGraw, June 2006.

Brain Plasticity, "Neuroscience's Holy Grail" (Colburne,1999) is the ability of the brain to update itself over the lifespan. And it does so via experience.

And there's one thing that somatic therapy and any therapy that emphasizes the relationship can give you that a book rarely can, and that's an experience.

Probably the hottest topic to come out of the 'Decade of the Brain' (i.e. the 1990's) was the realization that the ability of the brain to reorganize itself--brain plasticity--was greater than originally thought.

For instance, it once was believed that our characters or personalities were hard-wired during childhood, and that after those times passed, significant change was no longer possible.

But it turns out that our brain is not so limited. Neuroscience research shows that although the brain is most malleable (i.e. teachable) during the early years, it retains an ability to augment and rearrange its circuitry throughout the lifespan.

An important implication of this research is that psychotherapy can take advantage of the brain's plasticity. Much of the content on this site is alerting you to this possibility.

Parents alert...

There is sufficient evidence to suggest that there are critical periods during an infant's character development (i.e. via our emotion based right brain) where there's no turning back. As with our vision, there is a window of opportunity through which our needs for attachment must be met if we are to develop to our full potential.

The well-respected researcher and educator, Dr. Allan Schore, explains that our experiences in the first couple years of life sets the foundation for our relationships with our mother (or father, if he is the primary caregiver). Most important for our therapy, this emotional template determines the scope and flexibility of our emotional responses in all our future relationships.

The growth of our emotional brain starts before our motor and thinking skills. Furthermore, it appears that poor emotional development sets the stage for later cognitive and motor deficits (Spitz, 1945; Spitz & Wolfe, 1946)!

My Personal Musings

Are you a new parent? As you may have noticed we believe parenting in the first couple years of a child's life sets the stage for all future growth, both emotionally and intellectually.

Please don't miss the boat. Don't over emphasize the later years (e.g. the "right" preschool) at the cost of what really counts. What's fundamentally important is the connection with your child in the first few years of life.

In other words, we don't get a second chance to make a first impression!

Related External Link

Train Your Brain

Related Topic

Vision develops during critical periods.

Colburn, D. (1999) The Infinite Brain: People used to think the brain was static and inevitably declined with age. Actually the brain never stops changing--and we never stop learning. Washington Post, Sept. 28.

Eisch, Amelia, J. (2002). Adult neurogenesis: implications for psychiatry. In M. A. Hofman, G. J. Boer, A.J.G.D. Holtmaat, E.J.W. Van Someren, J. Verhaagen and D.F. Swaab (Eds.), Progress in Brain Research, 138, (pp. 315-341) Boston: Elsevier.

Schore, Allan (1994) Affect Regulation and the origin of the self: The neurobiology of emotional development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Spitz, Rene (1945) Hospitalism: An inquiry into the genesis of psychiatric conditions in early childhood. Psychoanalystic Study of the Child, 1, 53-74.

Spitz, Rene (1946) Anaclitic depression. Psychoanalystic Study of the Child, 2, 313-342.

Spitz Rene & Wolf K. (1946) Hospitalism: A follow-up report on investigation described in Volume 1, 1945. Psychoanalystic Study of the Child, 2, 313-342.

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