The Plastic Brain

Your brain is never finished. The key ideas:

• Built by use: circuits you fire grow stronger, unused ones get pruned away.
• Two mechanisms: synaptic plasticity tunes existing links; structural plasticity builds new ones.
• Recovery is real: healthy regions can take over jobs lost to a stroke.
• A dark side exists: chronic pain, addiction, and anxiety can entrench harmful circuits.
• Patterns can reverse: deliberate practice and therapy rewire the brain back toward health.