Letter to editor: Return To The Teenage Brain

Richard A. Friedman’s editorial “Return To The Teenage Brain” describes the brain’s increased ability to learn through what is called neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain’s increased ability to create habits and generally shape the structure of the brain, as a child this neuroplasticity is very high and as you grow older the neuroplasticity slowly fades until the fading stops at a certain point, in Friedman’s words, “The molten glass is very malleable but you have a relatively brief time before it cools and becomes crystalline.”

Friedman then builds on this by vividly extending his metaphor, “Put it back into the furnace, and it can once again change shape.” what Friedman means by this is he believes that it may be possible for humans to return to a childlike state of neuroplasticity. He follows this up with a few articles supporting this claim, but these sources, I feel, do not cover the whole possibility of what this new possibility may be.

Friedman has many good points and sources and while I do agree with what he says I also believe that more research should be done into this area to confirm or deny what he claims.

Amira Elnabarawy