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Forum  > Books  > The Wisdom Paradox
New research
Author Message
chrisPM49100
posted on February 17, 2008 10:18:20 AM
I\'ve just finished reading the French translation of the book (Title in French: Les prodiges du cerveau ou comment l\'esprit se bonifie avec l\'âge). The book which was offered to me for Valentine, cleans up obsolete knowledge I had about the brain, and is a source of hope for all of us. I\'m surprised that so few comments are made about it on this forum. Something struk me deeply, and I wonder if it is an insight: People\'s resistance to change must be located somewhere in the right brain, as change is an unpleasant experience: \"L\'homme aime la nouveauté pas le changement\" Voltaire. Best regards Christian (French native - 55 years old)
traveler
posted on February 18, 2008 04:16:26 PM
Now this is interesting! I\'ve noticed in my teaching that many young people (whose brains are supposed to be still somewhat plastic) are highly resistant to change--they hang on to their religion or politics for dear life! And many old folks are very resistant to change. So it has nothing much to do with age, it seems. Then there\'s the work of Milgram, Zimbardo, and others on operant conditioning that shows how obedient a species we are. So where does this resistance arise? If Dr. Goldberg\'s thesis is right, that the right hemisphere is the more plastic, learning part of the brain, that\'s the natural place to look for an answer. Perhaps it comes from a lack of stimulation in the early years, when the circuits are being laid down. And late in life, the circuits are locked in place because of the habitual activities we may engage in over a lifetime. I\'m not sure it resides in a particular place, so much as in the neural networks and their activity in general. Neural networks will proliferate if a brain/mind is given a rich environment from the start (confirmed in animal experiments and human). And people who live full, rich mental lives will be able to maintain a greater assembly of networks in their brain/mind, and survive to become Wise, as Dr. Goldberg seems to propose. Does that sound like the beginning of an answer?
tony
posted on October 9, 2006 01:05:05 PM
A new study by scientists at Harvard and Zurich shows that selfish impulses in individuals are associated with the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex. After reading Dr Goldberg\'s book it was no surprise to learn that these impulses are located in the right hemisphere.
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