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Historically, the brain has been regarded as “hard wired.” That is, many neural processes were regarded as permanent and inflexible. Rewiring of the brain was limited to the early years of a person’s life or special circumstances. However, research in recent decades has shown the exact opposite. From the day you are born to the day you die, your brain is constantly changing through neurological remodeling processes. Studies have shown how to ‘harness the (neuroplasticity) genie’ in ways that reverse negative brain changes that are attributed to aging, stress, and trauma. Research has also investigated how the right training can sustain our organic brain health, improve our neuropsychological capabilities, extending our lives, and delay progressions to a host of neurological, psychiatric and social maladies. In addition, our growing understanding of the ‘neuroplasticity’ processes of the brain across the span of our lives has transformed our understanding of the origins of both positive and negative aspects of our emergent operational personhoods. In other words, the constant wiring and re-wiring in your brain creates the unique, one-of-a-kind you. This talk will introduce you to the transformative science of brain plasticity and consider important implications of this science for human health and welfare.

The term neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt during an individual’s lifetime (neuro = neuron, plasticity = the malleability of the brain). Brain plasticity is responsible for both synaptic strengthening and synaptic weaking processes. That is, brain plasticity can help strengthen and improve your brain but can also cause weakening and decay. The good news is that researchers have demonstrated that almost all plasticity-induced changes are reversable and that neural responses can be modified and improved through neurobehavioral training. This talk will summarize recent progress in the development of brain plasticity-based therapeutics. We will examine brain plasticity-based strategies that have been designed to restore and strengthen brain health and functionality. In addition, we will look at how this emerging science and technology can be applied to four areas: a) brain-healthy aging; b) prevention of—and neurological recovery from—’criminal’ train-wrecks; c) prevention and treat of psychiatric illness; and d) incorporation of routine assessment of brain health in general medical practice.

The term neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt during an individual’s lifetime (neuro = neuron, plasticity = the malleability of the brain). Brain plasticity is responsible for both synaptic strengthening and synaptic weaking processes. That is, brain plasticity can help strengthen and improve your brain but can also cause weakening and decay. The good news is that researchers have demonstrated that almost all plasticity-induced changes are reversable and that neural responses can be modified and improved through neurobehavioral training. This talk will summarize recent progress in the development of brain plasticity-based therapeutics. We will examine brain plasticity-based strategies that have been designed to restore and strengthen brain health and functionality. In addition, we will look at how this emerging science and technology can be applied to four areas: a) brain-healthy aging; b) prevention of—and neurological recovery from—’criminal’ train-wrecks; c) prevention and treat of psychiatric illness; and d) incorporation of routine assessment of brain health in general medical practice.

B.F. Skinner famously proposed that the laws of behavior could be developed without any reference to the nervous system. That this is possible is amply demonstrated by the now- long and successful history of operant conditioning/behavior analysis research and practice over the past 90 years. However, there is nothing in Skinner’s original formulation that implies that behavior and the nervous system do not interact in important ways. It is evident that the nervous system is the final common pathway, integrating input from the environment and various internal systems to activate the peripheral nervous system, muscles and skeleton to produce movements that operate on the external environment – in short, producing behavior. What wasn’t known clearly until the pathbreaking work from the Mezenich laboratory in the 1990’s was that behavior in turn can have an equally profound effect on the nervous system. This process is now termed, among other things, use-dependent cortical reorganization or brain plasticity. A clear case in point is the development of Constraint-Induced Therapy, a family of rehabilitation treatments developed here. Members of this family of treatments were used initially for the rehabilitation of the impaired movements of the upper and lower extremities (CI Movement Therapy) after stroke, traumatic brain injury, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy (Pediatric CI Movement Therapy), and subsequently for impaired speech after stroke (CI Aphasia Therapy) and impaired executive function after stroke and COVID-19 (CI Cognitive Therapy). The foundation of this therapy is based entirely on behavior analysis principles and practice that I learned from my revered first mentor at Columbia University, Fred Keller, and later from my equally valued later mentor, Joseph V. Brady at the Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research with further impact from Neal Miller. The process by which this came about will be described in my talk. Numerous experiments have shown that different members of the CI Therapy family of treatments have a profound effect on the structure and function of the brain, and this in turn can have a marked effect on improving impaired movement, speech, and executive function after central nervous system injury. This is an example of the more general continual strong interaction of behavior and the nervous system serving to modify and shape both throughout the life span in a great feedback loop fundamental to the generation of behavior and the way in which the control of behavior can be used for the rehabilitation of movement impaired by CNS injury. It is important to take into consideration this “great feedback loop” in evaluating the potential of behavior analysis for improving the human condition.

Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy or CI Therapy is a family of neurorehabilitation treatments based almost entirely on behavior analysis methodology. It is derived from basic research experiments with monkeys given a surgical abolition of sensation from a single forelimb in which a useless deafferented limb was converted to a useful (though not normal) limb by shaping and other behavioral methods. Subsequently, the primate results provided the basis for the development of the CI Therapy family of interventions for humans for the rehabilitation of impaired function after stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other types of central nervous system damage. The impaired functions improved by this behavior analysis-based treatment include upper and lower extremity movement, focal hand dystonia in musicians, post-amputation phantom limb pain, aphasia and executive cognitive function. The same behavior analytic techniques are employed in all variants of CI Therapy. They target the behaviors associated with the impaired function; e.g., movements, expressive speech, activities of daily living (ADL) generally considered to importantly involve executive cognitive function. The techniques include shaping of relevant ADL in the treatment setting and a Transfer Package (TP) of techniques to facilitate transfer of the behavior improved by shaping in the laboratory to everyday situations outside the treatment setting and the long-term retention of this real-world improvement. The TP techniques include a behavior contract in which a patient-caregiver dyad agree to keep trying to carry out difficult-to-perform impaired behaviors, daily assignment of homework that is monitored, daily discussion of the amount and quality of performance of lists of impaired behaviors in a structured interview, daily sessions of problem solving to overcome perceived (or real), barriers to carrying our specific impaired behaviors at home, and then post-treatment, assignment of daily homework and periodic, scheduled phone interviews. The result is usually very large improvements in impaired function. When long-term homework performance is carried out and follow-up contact is maintained, improvement sometimes improves into the normal range. The extent to which this is possible with different severities of initial deficit is yet to be determined.

Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy or CI Therapy is a family of neurorehabilitation treatments based almost entirely on behavior analysis methodology. It is derived from basic research experiments with monkeys given a surgical abolition of sensation from a single forelimb in which a useless deafferented limb was converted to a useful (though not normal) limb by shaping and other behavioral methods. Subsequently, the primate results provided the basis for the development of the CI Therapy family of interventions for humans for the rehabilitation of impaired function after stroke, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other types of central nervous system damage. The impaired functions improved by this behavior analysis-based treatment include upper and lower extremity movement, focal hand dystonia in musicians, post-amputation phantom limb pain, aphasia and executive cognitive function. The same behavior analytic techniques are employed in all variants of CI Therapy. They target the behaviors associated with the impaired function; e.g., movements, expressive speech, activities of daily living (ADL) generally considered to importantly involve executive cognitive function. The techniques include shaping of relevant ADL in the treatment setting and a Transfer Package (TP) of techniques to facilitate transfer of the behavior improved by shaping in the laboratory to everyday situations outside the treatment setting and the long-term retention of this real-world improvement. The TP techniques include a behavior contract in which a patient-caregiver dyad agree to keep trying to carry out difficult-to-perform impaired behaviors, daily assignment of homework that is monitored, daily discussion of the amount and quality of performance of lists of impaired behaviors in a structured interview, daily sessions of problem solving to overcome perceived (or real), barriers to carrying our specific impaired behaviors at home, and then post-treatment, assignment of daily homework and periodic, scheduled phone interviews. The result is usually very large improvements in impaired function. When long-term homework performance is carried out and follow-up contact is maintained, improvement sometimes improves into the normal range. The extent to which this is possible with different severities of initial deficit is yet to be determined.

Darwin’s work on evolution through natural selection is routinely cited as providing a model for the search for a principle of behavioral selection. However, researchers soon departed from the Darwinian approach of basing the principle on a careful analysis of the observed environmental events and their corresponding observable behavioral characteristics. Instead, for these researchers, the purpose of observing behavior was not to refine the selection principle but to provide a basis for inferences about the underlying processes and structures thought to produce the behavior. This departure from the Darwinian model led ultimately to what is commonly known as the “cognitive revolution” in psychology. Two talks will describe work seeking a principle of behavioral selection and its neural mechanisms. In the first talk, research is described that refines our understanding of behavioral selection and explores some of its implications for the development of complex behavior. In the second talk, the neural mechanisms that implement behavioral selection are described. A synthesis of behavioral and neural research on the principle of behavioral selection makes possible an understanding of the important phenomena of memory and language that are the objects of the cognitive revolution.

Darwin’s work on evolution through natural selection is routinely cited as providing a model for the search for a principle of behavioral selection. However, researchers soon departed from the Darwinian approach of basing the principle on a careful analysis of the observed environmental events and their corresponding observable behavioral characteristics. Instead, for these researchers, the purpose of observing behavior was not to refine the selection principle but to provide a basis for inferences about the underlying processes and structures thought to produce the behavior. This departure from the Darwinian model led ultimately to what is commonly known as the “cognitive revolution” in psychology. Two talks will describe work seeking a principle of behavioral selection and its neural mechanisms. In the first talk, research is described that refines our understanding of behavioral selection and explores some of its implications for the development of complex behavior. In the second talk, the neural mechanisms that implement behavioral selection are described. A synthesis of behavioral and neural research on the principle of behavioral selection makes possible an understanding of the important phenomena of memory and language that are the objects of the cognitive revolution.

Darwin’s work on evolution through natural selection is routinely cited as providing a model for the search for a principle of behavioral selection. However, researchers soon departed from the Darwinian approach of basing the principle on a careful analysis of the observed environmental events and their corresponding observable behavioral characteristics. Instead, for these researchers, the purpose of observing behavior was not to refine the selection principle but to provide a basis for inferences about the underlying processes and structures thought to produce the behavior. This departure from the Darwinian model led ultimately to what is commonly known as the “cognitive revolution” in psychology. Two talks will describe work seeking a principle of behavioral selection and its neural mechanisms. In the first talk, research is described that refines our understanding of behavioral selection and explores some of its implications for the development of complex behavior. In the second talk, the neural mechanisms that implement behavioral selection are described. A synthesis of behavioral and neural research on the principle of behavioral selection makes possible an understanding of the important phenomena of memory and language that are the objects of the cognitive revolution.