How to Use a Fork (Stories of Mending the Broken Brain)

Twenty years ago, a stroke or other brain injury was considered a life sentence; doctors in training were taught that a damaged brain never mends. Since then, a quiet revolution in neuroscience has revealed that the brain is far more flexible than previously believed. By forging new networks and remapping damaged circuits, our brains adapt to changed circumstances in ways the old dogma deemed impossible. Yet the clinical care most patients receive has not caught up, denying many thousands the recovery that biology might allow. In How to Use a Fork, leading neurologist and neuroscientist Orlando Swayne shows readers how the brain’s natural capacity for reorganization—or neuroplasticity—can be harnessed to transform patients’ lives, and how much that was once thought irrevocably lost can yet be recovered, if people are given the chance.

Weaving vivid, illustrative stories distilled from his practice with a fascinating look inside the brain, Swayne leads an uplifting journey into the outer reaches of the human experience. We meet a woman who thinks her arm is a baby, a man who sees mannequins peering at him from the dark, and a patient who finds his way back to human interaction through music. In following these journeys we find that, with access to multidisciplinary care informed by the latest science, even the most profoundly affected of patients can fight to regain their identities. As Swayne passionately argues, the brain continues to adapt after injury; now, so must we. If we take up the challenge to channel neuroplasticity to its full potential, we can help more people begin mending what was broken—into something changed, but still beautiful.

The debut of a brilliant new doctor-writer, How to Use a Fork is a moving and hopeful testament to the extraordinary capacities of the brain and the human spirit.