https://www.integrativepractitioner.com ... lasticity/ The ability of the brain to change and reorganize itself and its function is called neuroplasticity, and it is a gift on par with neurogenesis, our ability to generate new brain cells throughout our lifetimes. Neuroplasticity provides us with a brain that can adapt not only to changes inflicted by damage, but more importantly, allows adaptation to any and all experiences and changes we may encounter, freeing us from merely responding reflexively as a consequence of genetically determined hard-wiring. Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone recently stated that neuroplasticity “… is an intrinsic property of the human brain and represents evolution’s invention to enable the nervous system to escape the restrictions of its own genome and thus adapt to environmental pressures, physiological changes, and experiences.”]
Michael, a 58 year old graphic designer from North Carolina came to see me in 1988. He reported that fourteen months prior to his visit he developed a fairly sudden onset of inability to speak. “I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn’t produce the words,” he recounted with perfect fluency. My first thought was that he had experienced a “TIA” or transient ischemic event, characterized by a brief decline in blood supple to a particular region of the brain. But as he continued, he revealed that his speech had been fairly compromised for at least six months following the attack. There was nothing “transient” about it. We reviewed an MRI scan of his brain done just two months prior to his visit at our clinic, and there, for all to see, was evidence of severe damage and loss of tissue in not only the speech area, but in the adjacent areas associated with facial movement and control of the right arm. Nonetheless, his examination revealed no deficit whatsoever. What had happened? Clearly, his brain hadn’t “healed” as the area of his initial stroke was still damaged as his MRI so clearly revealed.
Clearly his brain had adapted, that is, his brain began to use alternative pathways to regain function, an idea that was considered fanciful, even into the late 1980s.]
