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Norman Doidge

Norman Doidge Books

Psychiatrist

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“Because it is a 'use it or lose it' brain, when we develop a map area [in the brain], we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we've been sitting all day.”

IfsLongUseLosesBrainExerciseSittingAreasIntellectMusclesMapsImpatientUse It Or Lose It
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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“Analysis helps patients put their unconscious procedural memories and actions into words and into context, so they can better understand them. In the process they plastically retranscribe these procedural memories, so that they become conscious explicit memories, sometimes for the first time, and patients no longer need to "relive" or "reenact" them, especially if they were traumatic.”

IfsNeedsFirstsSometimesHelpingActionProcessMemoriesConsciousFirst TimePatientAnalysisUnconsciousExplicit
Author:Norman Doidge
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“Psychoanalysis is often about turning our ghosts into ancestors, even for patients who have not lost loved ones to death. We are often haunted by important relationships from the past that influence us unconsciously in the present. As we work them through, they go from haunting us to becoming simply part of our history. (243)”

ImportantPastLostInfluenceBecomingPatientGhostLoved OnesAncestorHauntingPsychoanalysisImportant RelationshipsLost Loved Ones
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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“Not all activities are equal in this regard. Those that involve genuine concentration—studying a musical instrument, playing board games, reading, and dancing—are associated with a lower risk for dementia. Dancing, which requires learning new moves, is both physically and mentally challenging and requires much concentration. Less intense activities, such as bowling, babysitting, and golfing, are not associated with a reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s. (254)”

MovingReadingGamesChallengesStudyRiskActivityEqualRegardInstrumentsDancingMusicalGenuineIntenseBoardsConcentrationGolfingDementiaAlzheimerBowlingAlzheimer'sMusical InstrumentsLearning NewIncidenceBoard GamesBabysitting
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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“We must be learning if we are to feel fully alive, and when life, or love, becomes too predictable and it seems like there is little left to learn, we become restless - a protest, perhaps, of the plastic brain when it can no longer perform its essential task.”

IfsFeelsLittlesSeemsLeftLove IsBrainAliveEssentialsTasksProtestPlasticRestlessPredictable
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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“Language development, for instance, has a critical period that begins in infancy and ends between eight years and puberty. After this critical period closes, a person’s ability to learn a second language without an accent is limited. In fact, second languages learned after the critical period are not processed in the same part of the brain as is the native tongue.”

YearsPersonsEndsFactsLanguageAbilityBrainDevelopmentPeriodsEightCriticalTongueInstanceNativeAccentsInfancyPubertyLanguage Development
Book:The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science
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