For those of us past the age of childhood, there’s good news from MIT and Johns Hopkins: conclusive proof that adult brains are capable of reorganization and change. While there has been considerable evidence of brain plasticity and neurogenesis in adults, the new work uses “brain imaging and behavioral studies to show that the adult visual cortex does indeed reorganize–and that the change affects visual perception.” The study appeared online Sept. 5 in an advance publication of the Journal of Neuroscience. (From Adult brain can change, study confirms.)
While the primary impact of this work will no doubt be in the improvement of treatments for patients who have suffered strokes or other brain injuries, in conjunction with additional researh it might be used to develop improved learning systems or even, perhaps, new brain fitness regimens. The lead author of the paper is Daniel Dilks, a postdoctoral associate in Professor Nancy Kanwisher’s lab at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.
