The Neuroscience Of Awakening: Your Brain On Buddhism

Our brains have the amazing ability to change themselves. This is called neuroplasticity. Our brains are not fixed structures. Rather, they are dynamic systems that are constantly changing and evolving in response to the environment. In fact, research done in the last decade has shown that the brain is much more malleable and responsive to change than previously thought. Neuroplasticity can occur at different levels of the brain, from the level of individual neurons to the level of entire brain regions. One of the primary features of neuroplasticity is that it is activity-dependent. This means that the changes in the brain are driven by experiences and activities. For example, if a person engages in a particular activity repeatedly, such as learning to play a musical instrument or practising a new language, the the brain will adapt to these experiences and develop new neural connections that support these activities. Neuroplasticity also has important implications for understanding the relatio