Cortical Plasticity: Your Brain's Adaptive Map

Your brain literally rewires itself based on your body. Scientists discovered that if a finger

is removed, the part of the brain that felt it doesn't just go dark.

It gets taken over by the neighboring fingers, making them extra sensitive.

This is called cortical plasticity. The opposite is also true: if you constantly practice

an instrument, the brain map for your fingertips actually gets bigger. So the "you" that

you feel isn't fixed at all. Your brain is constantly updating its map of your body based

on what you do and experience every single day.