Neuroplasticity: Exploring how brains wire and rewire

Michael Merzenich: Exploring the re-wiring of the brain (video lecture):

Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain's incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He's researching ways to harness the brain's plasticity to enhance our skills and recover lost function.

A most interesting lecture on neuroplasticity, beginning with newborn children, and moving onward.

Memories: When I was four years old, I once asked my mother, "Why do some people call me Neet! Neet!"?

That was, apparently, my first effort to say my name, years earlier, and it had sort of stuck.

As in: Hi! I'm Neet! Neet! Want pop?

Yes, it sounds a bit like the computer's "Merry Chrysanthemum" Christmas card. Except it wasn't.

It wasn't a random walk through possible combinations. It was an effort on the part of a mind to recall and duplicate specific sounds, however inaccurately, so as to communicate with the world.

Dr. Merzenich traces the way in which infants learn to comprehend the world.