Book review: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain

In Train Your Mind, Change your Brain, Sharon Begley recounts the history of "neuroplasticity," or the ability of the brain to grow new neurons and rewire itself, which neurologists and psychologists recently believed impossible. Begley, science columnist for The Wall Street Journal, takes a subject that could have been dry as dust or, conversely, simplified into self-help slogans, and turns it into a riveting story. As entertaining as it is edifying, this unlikely page turner will both fascinate you and make you more optimistic about your brain's capacities.

Begley frames her story around the Mind and Life Institute meeting of 2004, whose subject was neuroplasticity. The Mind and Life Institute was formed in 1990 as a way for the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan government in exile and spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, to both learn more about science and integrate it into Buddhism. Every few years, prominent scientists are invited to Dharmasala, India, to make presentations to the Dalai Lama, who discusses their findings with them.

Alternating between the scientists speaking to the Dalai Lama and a more general narrative, Begley begins at the beginning and lays out clues like in a detective novel. When the pioneers of the field find indications that the brain rewires itself, the establishment rejects the ideas by not publishing the work in prestigious journals and rejecting funding grants. The investigators kept going and chip away at the status quo, adding up studies of animals and people, discovering such things as why the blind have more acute hearing and amputees still feel their missing limbs. One by one, the tenets of the unchanging brain are felled, until it becomes official: even adults can achieve physical changes in their brains.

The Dalai Lama was pleased to hear the news of neuroplasticity. Buddhism has a sophisticated system of psychology, and the discovery of neuroplasticity matches beautifully with the Buddhist view that "mind" can influence the physical brain. The one sticking point that the Buddhists and the scientists had to let lie was exactly what "mind" is. The Buddhists believe it is something separate from the physical brain; the scientists believe that "everything is brain," that is, all mental activities can be accounted for by physical firings of neurons in the brain.

This research, and the study of Buddhist monks which resulted from the exchanges between the Dalai Lama and scientists, open up intriguing possibilities. Some studies Begley reports have shown that with the right kind of training, not only dyslexic children but also the elderly can beef up their auditory cortex and become better at language. The monks demonstrate the other end of the spectrum. Placed in the MRI machine and told to meditate on compassion, their brains showed intense activity in the areas associated with happiness. In between the two extremes, ordinary people were found to be more compassionate when asked to bring memories of being cared for to mind.

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain is an excellent popular overview of brain science, and furthermore is a joy to read. Begley never uses more technical jargon then necessary and regularly reminds the reader of seminal findings talked about earlier in the book. Her use of metaphors and similes is both helpful and entertaining. For instance, she reports that in the deaf, neurons in the brain's auditory area were expected to wither and die from lack of use, "making it as quiet as a butcher shop on and island of vegetarians" (p. 84). (Naturally this turned out not to be the case.)

Does the book have something practical to offer? Maybe. One scientist suggested a mental fitness might culture might arise out of this research, just as the culture of physical fitness did out of studies of the heart. There's a catch, however. Begley does not dwell on the issue, but it is clear that sustained training of attention is required to rewire the brain. The Buddhist monks who agreed to be tested did show remarkable abilities. They had dedicated years of their lives to meditating all day to get to that point, though.

Considering that the baby boom generation has created demands in every phase of life, if a culture of metal fitness develops, particularly for aging brains, it won't surprise me. Being a boomer myself, I'm all for it. I just hope I don't have to become a bodhisattva to reap the benefits. (For a Western take on mental training, see Scientific American, "The Science of Lasting Happiness", April 2007.)

Conference Report: Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference and Bookfair

AWP 2007, the annual meeting of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs, took place in Atlanta, Georgia February 28-March 3. It had more than 250 conference sessions for the 5,200 registered attendees (2,300 of whom were students), and a book fair with 50 booths, 323 tables, and over 400 participating organizations. According to the AWP, it was their largest, most successful and diverse conference ever.

Who
Who attends AWP? Writers and writing teachers; the published, the wanna-be-published, and the publishers (small and/or academic); poets, fiction writers, and essayists; MFA programs and writing retreats; literary magazines and an agent or two; and a few who don't fit into those categories (like me, a librarian-cum-journalist). They were younger and older, more female than male. The dress was college-campus hip-casual.

What
The sessions were nearly all panels, and they ranged in topic from the practical (how and what to write, how to get published, what to write about) and the cultural (minorities' writing) to poetry and fiction readings. The book fair had dozens of book signings every day, as well as candy, contests and give-aways (although not so much of these). My favorite was the Quick Fiction table. I had never heard of "quick fiction," but it is a genre of condensed writing -- stories and narrative prose poems under 500 words. The had a map of the U.S. displayed, and were trying to collect a quick fiction piece for every state. First come, first served. It looked like they mostly had the East Coast covered the last time I went by.

Why
AWP is the place to be for literary publishing -- small runs of artful work, not publishing on the level of Stephen King or Dan Brown (although I'm sure no one would protest should a book sell at that level). If you want to be a literary writer, there is a recognized path to take. Get published in literary magazines, and agents will take notice. Get an agent and write a novel. Have the agent shop it around, get published. When at AWP, make sure you make the rounds at the book fair, introduce yourself, get your face known by those literary magazine folks. It might help for them to put a face to a name. They don't care if you have an agent or not, they just want to publish good writing.

For those who want to work on their writing, there were sessions to attend. Anecdotes abounded about how particular writers do their writing and got published for the first time. (Most of them have specific recommendations for writing, and you could find them contradicted in the next session you attended.) Many MFA programs had booths at the book fair, but they did not seem busy. My guess is that most of the folks at the conference were already in or a graduate from an MFA program.

The Bottom Line
I found AWP quite interesting. I didn't know anything about the literary publishing world, so everything I saw and heard was a learning experience. I also found it rather inspiring; it made me want to get an MFA and become a writer as a profession. (This was a temporary effect, I'm happy to report.) I loved hearing Walter Mosely, the biggest name author at the conference, talk about his new book on writing coming out in April, This Year You Write Your Novel. After listening to Mosely, who thinks everyone should write a novel, I was almost convinced. Novel writing is an exercise in getting at the truth, he says, and the experience of writing one would make everyone more literate. But when he was asked how to begin, he said he just starts with a riff, and he rattled a sentence off the top of his head that would have been a fine start to an Easy Rawlins novel. Detailed and evocative, it left me wanting to hear the rest of the story. Wow. That's the real thing.

I was impressed with the amount of poets and poetry at the conference -- "a preponderance of poets," as my friend said. It was nice to meet them as well and see that they are regular people, not just mad scientists of the word. In addition, it was fascinating to listen and watch what was going on around me. At one session, a girl with pink hair wrote notes to herself, like "why don't I write more?" On the escalator, I overheard one fellow telling another he was going to skip the afternoon sessions to work on a chapter. "I've only written two pages, and I have so many notes!" I believe he meant he had submitted it somewhere and had to revise his writing. I was also amazed at the number of people (no less than five, I'm sure) who got up at Walter Mosely's talk who had finished one or more novels.

The book fair was small compared to other venues I have attended (the American Library Association, the Miami International Book Fair). It was a crowded affair on the basement level. The booths and tables were low-key, with very little adornment. There was little being give away, although one could have collected tons of free issues of literary magazines (nobody wanted to carry them home). Many, but not all, publishers cut their prices to move books on the last day.

I saw a lot of networking going on, and I made a few connections myself. ("Hi, I'm a book reviewer, can I give you my card?") I met an interesting woman whose day job is as a database analyst. She comes to AWP ever year because she loves poetry and it's a great place to get books. I also met a teacher who was still scarred by her MFA experience after ten years. It's not easy being a writer, and I got the impression that a lot of MFA programs are partly a hazing experience.

If you are an aspiring poet or writer, you could do much worse than go to AWP. It's reasonably priced ($205 on-site for a non-member of AWP) and a great networking opportunity. It's a place to get tips and inspiration, as well as spend time with other folks with the same aspirations. And who knows, you might write that novel next year, and you just might meet someone who will help you get it published.

Cross-posted to Blogcritics.

TV review: Raines

I like ghost stories. I'm not talking about the scary stuff, though; I'm talking about when spirits help solve crimes, for instance.

So, I'm perfectly set up for Raines, the new NBC drama that premieres on March 15th. (You can watch it beforehand, as I did, at NBC.com.) Michael Raines, played by Jeff Goldblum, is a detective returning to work at LAPD for the first time after three months; he and his partner Charlie were hit in a shoot-out. Charlie is apparently disabled; he uses a cane and is not working. So when Raines catches the case of young woman found shot in the back in a parking lot, he works it alone.

Raines first stop is the victim's apartment, where he comes across a young woman. "Are you her sister?" he asks. Raines is alarmed when she tells him she is Sandy Budreau, the victim. Afterward, he checks in with Charlie, who reminds him that he always talked to the victims. "Know the victim, find the killer, remember?" It's just that in the past Charlie was in the car with him, and the victims didn't appear in the flesh and talk back.

Raines admits to Charlie he's hallucinating, and his colleagues express concern about how much he's talking to himself. And it is to himself he talks. Although he sees Sandy, she doesn't know any more than he does and constantly reminds him of the fact, or turns questions back on him. "Why?" he asks. "Why do you think?" she responds.

Raines tries to take the easy route in solving the crime, going on circumstantial evidence, but Sandy does not go away. "Maybe you haven't solved the crime to your satisfaction," says Charlie. Indeed. With the help of his hallucination, Raines pushes on, and, of course, he does solve the crime. Even so, Sandy doesn't leave him. "Is there something else I can do you for you?" he asks. Naturally there is one more thing. And one more surprise.

You'd think a someone who sees dead people might be passé. I mean, Haley Joel Osmet did it so well in The Sixth Sense, and the brilliant HBO series Six Feet Under made artful use of dead characters. Not to mention that the television show Medium (also on NBC), in which a detective dreams of victims, has been on the air for many years now. So what does Raines have to offer? What makes it different? Aside from the fact that it's not actual ghosts he sees.

The character for one. Smart, eccentric, and sarcastic, he's kind of a cross between Adrian Monk and Alison Dubois with a dash of Gregory House. Raines' unique twist is that he wanted to be a writer, so even though he ended up a cop, he has a writer's imagination; characters (read dead people) come alive for him.

Jeff Goldblum for another. Goldblum is a well-respected actor, and he must have seen something in the script for him to take his first TV gig in over 25 years. (Check out the nice bio they have at NBC or better yet, Jeff's own website.) Unlike his energetic roles in such films as Jurassic Park or Independence Day, Goldblum gives Raines a low-key quirkiness rather than a frenetic presence.

The creator of the series and writer of the pilot episode is Canadian screen writer Graham Yost, who is known for the movies Speed, Broken Arrow and Hard Rain. Yost does a good job with the script, laying out the series premise and keeping the episode's mystery alive with a not-what-it-seems plot. The dialogue moves at a goodly pace and held some laugh-out-loud moments.

The supporting cast has promise, although it's hard to tell from the pilot if they will work well as an ensemble. (They include Matt Craven as Captain Daniel Lewis, Linda Park as Officer Michelle Lance, and Nicole Sullivan as Carolyn Crumley, a civilian employee at the police department.) Maybe I’m hallucinating, but given the offbeat premise and the promise of Jeff Goldblum communing with the dead, I think Raines is a show to watch.

Cross-posted to Blogcritics.