Old Dogs


Sister Kathy and I had a discussion tonight on the telephone about training your brain. She thinks that just about everyone would have a better mind if they were trained properly when they were young. In particular they could have a better memory.


It turns out she may be right. This month’s Discovery magazine reviews 2 books on neuroscience and both of them claim that the mind is much more resilient, malleable and morphable than we have been led to believe. They refer to the brain as “plastic” and use the term neuroplasticity.


These books claim that the theory that only infants brains had this neuroplasticity and that it fades steadily as the brain congeals into its adult configuration is spectacularly wrong. One book claims, “much of the neural dynamism remains active all through life (It just needs a little help to manifest fully).


If they are right victims of strokes, learning disorders, senility, post traumatic stress syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression can find hope and relief in neuroplasticity and proper training.

So Kathy, it appears you are right except that the training does not have to happen when you are young. If old dogs haven’t been able to learn new tricks, maybe that’s because no one has learned to teach them properly.