Your Brain Knows More Than You Think: the new frontiers of neuroplasticity

by Niels Birbaumer, Jörg Zittlau (With), David Shaw (Translator)

Overview

Our brains are more powerful than we ever realised.

Too often, we humans tend to assume that nature is fixed, immutable — and this tendency is particularly strong when we think about matters of the mind and behaviour. People just can’t change, we say, so they must somehow be prevented from becoming a burden on society or from hurting themselves and others. Neuroplasticity — the virtually limitless capacity of the brain to remould itself — turns these notions on their heads.

Leading brain researcher Niels Birbaumer brings new hope to those suffering from depression, anxiety, ADHD, addiction, dementia, the effects of a stroke, or even the extremes of locked-in syndrome or psychopathy. Like the fathers and mothers of psychiatry, Birbaumer explores the sometimes-wild frontiers of a new way of thinking about our brains and behaviour. Through actual cases from his research and practice, he shows how we can change through training alone, and without risky drugs. Open your mind to change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781925548310
Publisher:	Scribe Publications Pty Ltd
Publication date:	08/28/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Niels Birbaumer is a psychologist and neurobiologist. He is a leading figure in the development of brain–computer interfaces, a field he has researched for 40 years, with a focus on treating brain disturbances. He has been awarded numerous international honours and prizes, including the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize and the Albert Einstein World Award of Science. Professor Birbaumer is co-director of the Institute of Behavioural Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen in Germany, and senior researcher at the Wyss Centre for Bio- and Neuro-engineering in Switzerland.
Jörg Zittlau is a freelance journalist and writes about science, psychology, and philosophy, among other topics. He is also the author of several bestsellers.
David Shaw works as a journalist for Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, as well as translating from several languages, including German, Dutch, Russian, and French. He lives in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Foreword: Why We Change

1. What Is Personality?
from a street gang to university is just a small step

2. Anything Is Possible?
the plastic brain

3. The Coming Out of Locked-in Patients
how the brain gives a voice to the voiceless

4. No Case for Euthanasia
the quality of life of vegetative and locked-in patients

5. Hope for People Suffering from
Epilepsy or Stroke our brain’s enormous powers of self-healing

6. Brutal Confrontation
controlling anxiety and depression without medication

7. Lock Them Up and Throw Away the Key?
even psychopaths can change

8. The Trained Brain
living better with Parkinson’s and dementia

9. Fidgeting Is Not an Inescapable Fate
treating ADHD without drugs

10. Genius for All
how we can improve our perception

11. Nirvana
is there life beyond greed, addiction, and want, want, want?

Acknowledgements
References
Notes

Editorial Reviews

05/28/2018
Neurobiologist Birbaumer makes some far-reaching claims about how people with mental illness and brain damage can be treated in this bold book about the human brain. Premised on the 1961 Milgram experiment in which participants knowingly administered supposedly deadly shocks to an unseen victim, this work describes the brain’s survival strategies and its neuroplasticity—the “virtually limitless capacity of the brain to remold itself”—as having mostly positive but some disastrous consequences, including obsession and addiction. The ideas here may be controversial but are also exciting. Birbaumer argues that people with mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety, cognitive problems, and degenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s and dementia can heal themselves “if they train their brain in the right way.” Even non-responsive, “locked-in” people can communicate to a degree, he proposes, by using a neurofeedback method and a magnetoencephalography machine. Birbaumer developed the machine himself and describes it as “a helium-cooled device that sits on the subject’s head like an old-fashioned hood hair dryer” and picks up the signals emitted by the brain. While promoting the use of biotechnology in treating victims of stroke and epilepsy, Birbaumer expresses skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry and especially of the use of Ritalin in treating children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Though far from definitive, this book is daring and unconventional. (June)

Publishers Weekly

A fascinating read and a groundbreaking work on the human condition. Birbaumer shares his insatiable curiosity and gives us a tour of the human brain, the many cases he’s worked on, and the therapies he’s pioneered—some of which are truly radical!”
—David Roland, author of How I Rescued My Brain

“The ideas here may be controversial but are also exciting…Though far from definitive, this book is daring and unconventional.”
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

‘A fascinating read and a groundbreaking work on the human condition. Birbaumer shares his insatiable curiosity and gives us a tour of the human brain, the many cases he’s worked on, and the therapies he’s pioneered — some of which are truly radical!’

David Roland