Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain (Paperback, 2007)

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain – Sharon Begley

For most of the twentieth century, neuroscientists believed that the adult brain was essentially fixed: after childhood, its structure and wiring could not change significantly. Research in recent decades has overturned this belief, revealing that the brain remains capable of change throughout life, a property known as neuroplasticity. In Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley tells the story of this discovery and its implications.

The book grew out of a meeting between the Dalai Lama and leading neuroscientists at the Mind and Life Institute, which brings scientists and Buddhist contemplatives together to discuss the nature of the mind. The Dalai Lama, who contributed a foreword, had long been curious about whether meditation and mental training could change the brain.

Begley describes landmark research showing that the brain can reorganize itself in response to experience: how areas devoted to one sense can be taken over by another in people who are blind or deaf, how practice can expand the brain regions used for particular skills, and how new neurons can be born in adult brains. She then turns to studies showing that the mind itself, through focused attention and thought, can change the brain, including research on psychotherapy for depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and studies of experienced Buddhist meditators showing distinctive patterns of brain activity associated with compassion and attention.

Engaging and accessible, the book explores the hopeful possibility that people can cultivate happiness, compassion and well-being through mental training.

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain will appeal to readers interested in neuroscience, meditation and personal growth. Research in this area has advanced since publication.