Eyes on the Brain

A neurobiologist explores the amazing capacity of the brain to rewire itself at any age.

Susan R. Barry is a professor of neurobiology in the Department of Biological Sciences at Mount Holyoke College and the author of Fixing My Gaze (June, 2009). See full bio

August 25, 2009

How to Rewire Your Brain, Part II: An Intensely Conscious Act.

A few years ago I had a phone conversation with Michael Chorost, the author of Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human. The fact that we were talking to each other over a distance of 3000 miles was incredible enough (although we take telephones for granted) but what was even more astonishing was that I was talking to man who is profoundly deaf. Read More

August 18, 2009

How to Rewire Your Brain. Part 1: The Importance of Everyday Experiences.

How do you change your brain? How can you recover from a neurological injury such as a stroke or learn to see or hear in a new way? I've gathered a number of clues from my own experience in gaining stereovision as well as from talking with and reading about others. In the next several posts, I'll describe what I've learned. Here's the first tip: Read More

July 30, 2009

A Secret to Driving Fast

If you were driving down the highway at 70 miles per hour and suddenly had to steer the car around several obstacles, could you do it?

July 15, 2009

Dealing with Arrogance.

Sometimes my spirited students teach me how to deal with the people I meet, especially arrogant people. Read More

June 27, 2009

Why Can't My Child Read?

As another school year is brought to a close, we need to ask again why so many children struggle in their classes. Sometimes the answer is right in the front of our face.

June 18, 2009

Seeing and Believing

Some people see in very unusual ways - like my friend Sarah. Read More

June 12, 2009

You See it but is it Real?

How do we know that what we see is real? Read More

June 3, 2009

Me and Oliver Sacks

When I experienced a seemingly impossible and profound change in my vision, I wondered if anyone would believe me. I wanted to tell someone but whom? Read More

May 27, 2009

When Tests Fail

In the last post, I talked about adaptations: how my husband Dan had adapted to the microgravity of spaceflight and how I had adapted to seeing with crossed eyes. Not all adaptations are beneficial, but in this post I want to describe a remarkable adaptation and how clinical tests failed to reveal it.

May 20, 2009

What Do Astronauts and Cross-Eyed People Share in Common?

Between 1992 and 2005, my husband Dan was a NASA astronaut and flew on the Space Shuttle three times. When he returned from his first trip to outer space, I realized that his experience in microgravity and my experience with crossed eyes shared something in common.

Fixing My Gaze: A Scientist's Journey Into Seeing in Three Dimensions

Neuroscience Basics

The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe, and in many ways it's the final frontier of science. A hundred billion neurons, close to a quadrillion connections between them, and we don't even fully understand a single cell.

Go to the Neuroscience Basics page for more on Neuroscience including:

Current Issue

Everyday Creativity

How to start living creatively and reap the benefits.

Subscribe to Eyes on the Brain

Books by Susan R. Barry, Ph.D.

Neuroscience Basics

Current Issue