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Member
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Phoenix AZ
Posts: 531
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Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Phoenix AZ
Posts: 531
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Better understanding of neuroplasticity over the last decade or so has shown promise for developing rehabilitation techniques for stroke patients and other forms of ABI as well as for TBI. When I was in speech and occupational therapy, I would sometimes ask myself “why are they making me play these games?”. Now I can better understand that these mental gymnastics help to rebuild the neuro pathways. Or as stated by Canadian neuropsychologist Donald Hebb in 1949, “Neurons that fire together wire together.”
There are number of good references that touch on this subject. Train your Mind, Change your Brain (Sharon Begley, 2007), follows from a forum where leading neurologists and neuroscientists attended a conference with the Dalai Lama on how Buddhist meditation techniques (applied in the West as mindfulness meditation) can effect brain changes.
A leading physician and neuroscientist Daniel Segal MD had a couple books out: Mindsight, New Science of Personal Transformation (2010) and Pocket Guide to Neurobiology, (2012) that I found both accessible and informative.
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What Happened: On November 29, 2010, I was walking across the street and was hit by a light rail commuter train. Result was a severe traumatic brain injury and multiple fractures (skull, pelvis, ribs). Total hospital stay was two months, one in ICU followed by an additional month in neuro-rehab. Upon hospital discharge, neurological testing revealed deficits in short term memory, executive functioning, and spatial recognition.
Today: Neuropsychological examination five months post-accident indicated a return to normal cognitive functioning, and I returned to work approximately 6 months after the accident. I am grateful to be alive and am looking forward to enjoying the rest of my life.
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