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MYTH: You can’t change your brain.

FACTS: Sure you can. Neurologists now reject the notion that the brain is set in stone, though they debate the extent of its malleability. The latest thinking is elegantly explained in a new book, The Brain that Changes Itself, by psychiatrist Norman Doidge of Columbia University and the University of Toronto. Doidge presents case histories and doctor interviews that reveal how the brain can change physically over the course of a human lifetime: by switching chemicals in its cells, by reordering connections between cells and by compelling large areas of tissue to assume functions of damaged regions.

Examples include: a woman born with half a brain that began to work as a whole; amputees erasing the “phantom pain” of missing limbs; and patients overcoming depression and anxiety. Perhaps most amazing are cases of blind people learning to see.

Best of all, says Doidge, you can make it happen. “Our brain processors can actually be improved throughout our lives, shaped by our thoughts, from cradle to grave,” said in an interview. Thoughts alone can switch certain genes on and off and alter the anatomy of the brain, sometimes allowing it to grow whole new cells, he says.

Exercises, such as computer tasks that improve vision processing or knitting and playing musical instruments for motor control, force the brain to adapt. And treatment such as cognitive therapy, which teaches people to alter negative patterns of thought and behavior, can address some mental disorders, as well as addictions.