Brain Plasticity PARC forum talk

I'm in an interesting talk at the George E. Pake auditorium at PARC called Brain Plasticity Bases of Human Ability, Disability, and Recovery”
Michael M. Merzenich, PhD

Abstract:
Brain plasticity – the remodeling of effective brain connections as a function of brain use – is the primary basis of the acquisition of the specific skills and abilities that define our individual operational capabilities. Abnormal brain-remodeling progressions contribute crucially to developmental and acquired-adult disabilities. Using computer-guided approaches, we have employed the powerful capacity for functional brain remodeling to develop novel rehabilitation strategies designed to help impaired children and adults. We have also developed “brain fitness programs” designed to grow and sustain high performance capabilities in older-age populations. This talk shall provide a brief summary of our state of progress in this rapidly growing field.

Here is the summary of the talk. My thoughts are in italics.

The brain is an adaptable machine and brain plasticity shows remarkable development of our skills and abilities. This shows in children, who develop the skills rapidly and this is a lifelong process. Humans are incredibly adaptable (which explains why we still haven't gotten computers to surpass human intelligence in AI). The normal primary auditory cortex decreases in size from an infant to an adult in rats. Tonal frequencies in regions of the cortex show which parts of the cortex are responsive to modulated signals and stimuli. Therefore, he says that we can manipulate the rat's brain to successive stimuli by creating a cortex which responds to certain frequencies. By doing this, we are manipulating the cortex of a mammal and if we apply this to humans, we are changing the human brain. This means then we could create specific humans with certain abilities, and this impedes into God's creation and evolution of human beings. We are beginning to play with God's creation with nature, so this has moral implications. This can be good for creating therapies to address impairments in children, but what if that is not the case, that we do it to address a natural weakness and provide a significant competitive advantage compared to other humans?

An older brain controls its own plasticity. He is mentioning that he could take any person in the audience and could manipulate our cortex and brain plasticity and is wanting to do this kind of experiment (audience laughs). We can use our understanding of plasticity to model the origins of human training. The training was conducted on impaired children to improve their reading. This can be used for adults to improve memory (everybody in the audience acknowledges). There are computer-based game type of exercises in the brain plasticity-based training program for adults. Their results are encouraging and show that there is some reversal and a 10-15 years of memory reversal (wow, that's cool, I could use something like this, I always depend on my Palm handheld to remember things) The adults that used this program enjoyed it and didn't want to stop. In an older brain, the cortex slows down and the brain wears down, so the idea is to train the brain to improve the speed of processing.

There are five (of many) training modules to address different types of brain activity: complex thinking, listening, fine motor control, seeing and balance, posture, mobility.