An older brain cannot easily reassign settled territories for new tasks, while a brain at the dawn of its wars can still reimagine its maps.” No technology yet exists to enable this kind of flexible machine intelligence, which underscores the immensity of the challenge Eagleman is posing. While “Livewired ” is long on enthusiasm (and rightfully so), it’s a bit short on guidance for emulating or augmenting the adaptable system inside our heads. It’s easy for the hype that surrounds brain plasticity to get ahead of reality, as when Elon Musk’s Neuralink prototype — branded as a “Fitbit in your skull” to enhance neural activity — proved to be basically a miniaturized set of electrodes. the degree of plasticity in a brain region reflects how much its data change (or are likely to change) in the outside world (if the incoming data are unwavering, the system hardens around them; if the data are constantly changing, the system remains flexible; as a result, stable data solidify first). Livewired is framed as a series of fascinating sketches about "things the brain can do." The author seems most eager to point out ways that our current understanding of the brain could lead to wild, sci-fi futures. For example, the brain can successfully navigate a changing body and environment, so why can't our things do the same? Why can't our house adjust to our needs automatically? Same with our cars, our businesses, our cities. Ideas like these are radically out there, but also seem quite plausible in the author's capable hands.

livewired”(живо-свързан). Мозъкът ни се променя посоянно — той е адаптируема, жива, информационно-търсеща система. Изключителното на тази система е не в уникалността на частите й, а в начина, по който тези части си взаимодействат. Тя е динамична, жива електрическа вечнопроменяща се и самоконфигурираща се тъкан/мрежа. Be a part of the change! Jessica Wade and Maryam Zaringhalam will cover how to edit and create entries in To put these two thoughts together: the brain is shaped both by noisy and unpredictable processes during development, and by its own ceaseless, intrinsic, self-organising activity. Eagleman’s stress on “interacting with the world” has to be seen in this context.The brain contains a map of the body because of a simple rule that governs how individual brain cells make connections with one another: neurons that are active close in time to one another tend to make and maintain connections between themselves. That’s how a map of the body emerges in the darkness.” Brains are most flexible at the beginning, in a window of time known as the sensitive period. As this period passes, the neural geography becomes more difficult to change.” Taking the idea further, Eagleman makes us wonder whether a livewired, self-adapting home and electric grid could be right around the corner. Trippy, sure, but why not? And that's what I particularly appreciate about Eagleman's work: he provokes us to think about *both* the stuff we take for granted *and* the radical "adjacent possible". This is especially fun since the book is talking about the very same thing you're using to read it (not the Kindle, silly — I mean your *brain*). For example, if the brain's so damn changeable, how can we even hold on to any memories before they get overwritten by new stuff?

This is why the neocortex looks about the same everywhere: because it is the same. Any patch of cortex is pluripotent—meaning that it has the possibility to develop into a variety of fates, depending on what’s plugged into it.” You are a different person than you were at this time last year, because the gargantuan tapestry of your brain has woven itself into something new,” Eagleman writes. An intellectually exhilarating look at neuroplasticity … Eagleman’s skill as teacher, bold vision, and command of current research will make this superb work a curious reader’s delight” The fine structure of the brain reflects the environment to which it is exposed. World experience modulates almost every measurable detail of the brain, from the molecular scale to overall brain anatomy.”

Beyond the Book

Edit: I have had a lot of people commenting on this review so please let me clarify what I mean. I found factual inaccuracies in the book that I know to be inaccurate because there were about my own field of expertise. The inaccuracies were referenced but did not match what the reference material stated and I had to go to the reference source to clarify what was actually factually correct. I can not recommend a book that fails to reference correctly. The changes underlying memory are distributed widely over titanic numbers of neurons, synapses, molecules, and genes.” Our DNA is not a fixed schematic for building an organism; rather, it sets up a dynamic system that continually rewrites its circuitry to reflect the world around it and to optimize its efficacy within it.”