"My Love Affair with the Brain" A Marian Diamond Documentary
The documentary I watched was "My Love Affair with the Brain" which was an excellent and inspiring story about Marian Diamond. Marian is a power house of a woman, and has dedicated her life to studying the brain and educating others. This one-hour documentary focuses on Marian's life as a researcher, teacher, and the experiments she used to discover that our brains are not fixed, but are constantly changing, which we now know as neuroplasticity. I was not familiar with Marian Diamond or her work before watching the documentary. I decided that since we are learning about the brain I should dive a little deeper and learn about the woman who began the new age research of neuroanatomy and neuroplasticity.
For a very long time it was universally accepted knowledge that when we are born, our brains will grow to whatever size they are programmed to grow, plateau, then they gradually start declining as we grow older. Marian Diamond did not agree with this statement, and she needed to find a way to showcase that our brains are constantly changing and are affected by our environment. She did an experiment with three different environments involving rats: an enriched environment, a half-way enriched environment, and an isolated environment. What she discovered was that the brains of rats who lived with other rats in an enriched environment grew more in comparison to the isolated rat, whose brain actually shrunk. What she discovered was that our environments directly affect our brain and its ability to function. This completely tore a hole through the idea that our brains do not change over time. Instead Marian Diamond discovered through her research that our brains are constantly adapting and finding new ways to function and she founded a new term: neuroplasticity.
It is so important to consider how our brains function and change over time in relation to our environment so that we can be aware of our own client's abilities. If we as occupational therapists provide our clients with an engaging, trusting, and positive environment I believe that the clients are more likely to be motivated in therapy and work harder towards reaching their goals. It is also important for occupational therapists to consider how a client's neuroplasticity can affect their therapy process. Occupational therapists need to implement ways to work this into our intervention, especially when working with clients who have neurological disorders. This documentary was fascinating and reminded me just how amazing our brains are. I would encourage everyone to watch this documentary, especially if you are interested in learning more about the brain and the extraordinary life of Marian Diamond. Please go to lunaproductions.com to find more information!
Ryan, C., Weimberg, G. (Directors). (2017). My Love Affair with the Brain [Film]. Luna Productions.
For a very long time it was universally accepted knowledge that when we are born, our brains will grow to whatever size they are programmed to grow, plateau, then they gradually start declining as we grow older. Marian Diamond did not agree with this statement, and she needed to find a way to showcase that our brains are constantly changing and are affected by our environment. She did an experiment with three different environments involving rats: an enriched environment, a half-way enriched environment, and an isolated environment. What she discovered was that the brains of rats who lived with other rats in an enriched environment grew more in comparison to the isolated rat, whose brain actually shrunk. What she discovered was that our environments directly affect our brain and its ability to function. This completely tore a hole through the idea that our brains do not change over time. Instead Marian Diamond discovered through her research that our brains are constantly adapting and finding new ways to function and she founded a new term: neuroplasticity.
It is so important to consider how our brains function and change over time in relation to our environment so that we can be aware of our own client's abilities. If we as occupational therapists provide our clients with an engaging, trusting, and positive environment I believe that the clients are more likely to be motivated in therapy and work harder towards reaching their goals. It is also important for occupational therapists to consider how a client's neuroplasticity can affect their therapy process. Occupational therapists need to implement ways to work this into our intervention, especially when working with clients who have neurological disorders. This documentary was fascinating and reminded me just how amazing our brains are. I would encourage everyone to watch this documentary, especially if you are interested in learning more about the brain and the extraordinary life of Marian Diamond. Please go to lunaproductions.com to find more information!
Ryan, C., Weimberg, G. (Directors). (2017). My Love Affair with the Brain [Film]. Luna Productions.
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