The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older [Hardcover]

Elkhonon Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2005

A provocative look at how new research is highlighting the emerging powers of the aging mind

In The Wisdom Paradox, world-renowned neuropsychologist Elkhonon Goldberg argues that though some mental abilities (such as recent-memory recall) decline as the mind enters the “autumn season” of our life span, the brain becomes more powerful in its ability to recognize patterns. As a result, we are able to make decisions at more intuitive and effective levels—a late- emerging mental strength he terms “wisdom.”

In lively, accessible prose, Goldberg delves into the mechanisms of the mind, outlining how the elegant structures of the brain develop and change over the course of a lifetime as they work increasingly in concert. Drawing on recent and historical examples of leaders and artists who achieved their greatest successes late in life—from Roosevelt to Thatcher to Reagan, from Goethe to Grandma Moses—Goldberg illustrates the effects of an emerging scientific understanding of the biology of wisdom. Drawing on the latest research in brain function, he takes to task outdated neurological concepts and argues that new neurons can be created throughout our lives, the left brain’s specialization in pattern recognition accounts for its increased activity as we age, and the strengthening of neural pathways in later years accelerates decision-making processes. Most provocatively, he outlines how a “cognitive fitness” program can both curtail the negative mental effects of aging and enhance our decision-making powers.

Editorial Reviews

From Scientific American

The possibilities of cognitive decline and dementia are among the most frightening aspects of aging. But according to New York University neuropsychologist Elkhonon Goldberg, brains get better in key respects as they get older. Moreover, he argues in The Wisdom Paradox, people can do much to ward off the debilities associated with aging. The brain’s capacity for pattern recognition is central to Goldberg’s premise. Moving through middle age and beyond, the brain develops a vast store of "generic memories"—knowledge of the shared patterns in events or things. This reservoir gives older people an improved ability to size up situations and solve problems without going through the step-bystep assessments a younger person might need. Such pattern recognition underlies competence and expertise and can compensate for age-related declines in attention or memory. Pattern recognition can even amount to "wisdom"—basically, knowing what to do. The author cites various elderly achievers to demonstrate that mental vigor can persist late in life. He notes that sculptor Eduardo Chillida retained formidable abilities even as his Alzheimer’s disease progressed. Delving into the relevant neurobiology, Goldberg points to a growing body of evidence that the brain’s left hemisphere is oriented toward familiar patterns, whereas the right hemisphere focuses on novelty. He argues that this dichotomy is more important than nuts-and-bolts partitions, such as the left hemisphere handling language while the right handles spatial reasoning. This maturation of mind means that the left hemisphere becomes increasingly important over a person’s lifetime. Moreover, the brain is shaped by how it is used. For instance, musicians who practice consistently develop a larger Heschl’s gyrus, an area involved in processing sound. And contrary to onetime scientific belief, the brain forms new neurons throughout adulthood. Through such observations, Goldberg emphasizes the importance of maintaining an active mind as a defense against mental decline. Though not a new idea, Goldberg impressively fits it into a wide- ranging picture of the aging brain. He speculates, for example, that art serves a central societal function in boosting mental acumen. He also outlines a "cognitive exercise program" he runs in which participants engage in computer-based exercises. The discussion here would have benefited from home-based exercises readers might try. Altogether, The Wisdom Paradox makes a compelling case for the possibility of maintaining a sharp mind far into old age. The book merits attention from the old and not so old alike.

Kenneth Silber

Review

Brilliant . . . Highly engaging . . . no less than a grand piece of scientific reporting and ‘popular’ science. (Oliver Sacks on The Executive Brain)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Gotham (February 21, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592401104
• ISBN-13: 978-1592401109
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #332,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but a bit of a tease at the end, April 25, 2005

By 

D. S. Bornus (St. Paul, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)

This is a very well-written, readable, and interesting book that incorporates some of the latest information about brain neurology, consciousness, and memory. Goldberg presents complex information in an easy to understand way. His thesis is that early in life, our brains have a greater ability to analyze and assimilate new information, developing neural "patterns." As we age, our analytical ability degrades due to physical aging of the brain, but we continue to thrive because the many "patterns" accreted over our lifetime help us to quickly recognize new data and categorize it. The adult brain's extensively-developed repertoire of patterns/data funnels is an analogy for "wisdom" which intuitively reaches insightful conclusions without much analysis.

As a result, Goldberg suggests that if we consciously cultivate our mental activity, building up neural connections and "patterns," we will insulate ourselves against any potential cognitive erosion due to aging. In the final chapters, Goldberg goes on to describe his facility that provides computer-mediated mental "workouts" to those who desire such therapy. I felt that this part of the book was a bit of a tease, or advertisement. Goldberg doesn't tell us what mental exercises to undertake, the implication is that we need to seek the services of his facility, or devise our own mental exercise program. I found this part a bit disappointing. (For those seeking such practical advice/exercises for brain development I recommend "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot" by Richard Restak.)

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Opinionated , original, and independent, April 30, 2005

By 

N N Taleb "Nassim N Taleb" - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)

If you like the thinker's prose, the so-called "romantic science",a style attributed to the Russian neuroscientist A. R. Luria,which consists in publishing original research in literary form, you would love this book. Clearly intellectual scientists are vanishing under the weight of the commoditization of the discipline. But once in a while someone emerges to reverse such setbacks.
Goldberg, who was the great Luria's student and collaborator, is even more colorful and fun to read than the master. He is egocentric, abrasive, opinionated, and colorful. He is also disdainful of the conventional beliefs in neurosciences --for instance he is suspicious of the assignment of specific functions, such as language, to anatomical regions. He is also skeptical of the journalistic "triune" brain. His theory is that the hemispheric specialization is principally along pattern matching and information processing lines:the left side stores patterns, while the right one processes novel tasks. It is convincing to see that children suffer more from a right brain injury, while adults have the opposite effect.
There is a little bit of open plugging of Goldberg's for-profit institute;he would have gotten better results by being subtle. A fre minor points. I did not understand why Goldberg discusses "modularity", of which he is critical, as if it were the same thing in both neurobiology and in cognitive science. In neurobiology, modularity implies regional localization, while cognitive scientists (Marr, Fodor, etc.) make no such assumption: for them it is entirely functional and they would be in great agreement with Goldberg. Also I did not understand why he attributes the language instinct to Pinker, not Chomsky, and why he makes snide remarks about behavioral scientists like Kahneman and Tversky. But these are very minor details that do not weaken the message (I still gave the book 5 stars). I am now spoiled; I need more essays by opinionated, original,and intellectual, contemporary scientists.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There is a wealth of wisdom to be had here!, March 14, 2005

By 

R. Steiner "Books for the ages" (New York City USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)

Elkhonon Goldberg has once again created a book that blends his extensive knowledge of neuropsychology and neuroscience, modestly including his own very large (and probably still underestimated) contribution to the cutting edge of the field, and his own introspective experience as a living, breathing brain-owner, into a highly accessible, often playful, yet profoundly elegant treatise on the fate of the brain and cognition over the course of "normal aging."

Similar to his equally excellent and well-received earlier book "The Executive Brain," he writes with warmth and genuine affection for his reader and his material. As a clinical neuropsychologist myself, I generally prefer the more "textbook" type of presentation to those that are created for popular consumption, but in Goldberg's case, I make a strong exception. His gift seems to be his ability to "connect" hard science to life experience using accessible language that captures what might otherwise be arcane discourse, instead providing cogent explanation of complex ideas in a lively and inviting fashion.

Goldberg, as a deep and heuristic thinker, has contributed several highly promising and potentially advancing observations to the field of neuropsychology. Each of these ideas is incorporated into a forward-looking path toward understanding the complex changes in brain function and cognition that take place over the lifespan, culminating for those who are fortunate (and have worked hard for it) into a "style" of cognitive processing that, in more poetic terms, has been referred to through the ages as "wisdom."

One of the more elegant aspects of Goldberg's writing is that while resorting to science to explain what has otherwise required the "poetic," he manages to hold on to the poetry, perhaps even creating some in the process.