Reply To: Cross-Train Your Brain – Free

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Hi Robbo!

I was reading your post and thinking about it on my way home from work. Neuroplasticity sounds pretty cool, but everything I have read about it, applies to to brain injury and how the brain finds new pathways to old information.

I think a lot of it is how information is stored in the brain. I work with computers and files are laid out in contiguous sectors (locations) in memory an on the hard drives. In the brain, information is scattered over regions but no one place in your brain has the memory of your first ice cream cone. That memory would be stored all over the place, the sensation of cold, the sweetness and taste of the ice cream, and the smell of the ice cream store. All stored in different locations and together make up the one memory. I am sure Dr. J can fill in far more details.

I kind of discounted neuroplasticity in the treatment of ADD, because we are not “damaged”. There is no injury or trauma, or anything like that. For us it is how our brains are wired, and as far as the brain is concerned, “all systems normal”. The bad news is, normal for us, is not normal for those blessed not to have this affliction. I am sure if someone watched me go about my day, “Brain Damaged” would come to mind.

I try to retrain myself to do things, so I have to think about them and once I start thinking about them, they don’t get forgotten. Other things I developed an almost OCD ritualistic behavior, which is unnatural to me and again keeps the things I need to do all the time in the forefront of my thought. I still get distracted and diverted and I forget things, but not to the extent I used to.

I would like to read that article you are trying to find. This 60year old codger is always learning new things!

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