article_snippet.sent: a neuroscientist said: 'One vital fact I have learnt is that the brain is not the unchanging organ that we might imagine. '
article_snippet.sent: It not only goes on developing, changing and, in some tragic cases, eventually deteriorating with age, It is also substantially shaped by what we do to It and by the experience of daily life.
article_snippet.sent: At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli.'
article_snippet.sent: the brain, in other words, is malleable - not just in early childhood but right up to early adulthood, and, in certain instances, beyond.
article_snippet.sent: The surrounding environment has a huge impact both on the way our brains develop and how that brain is transformed into a unique human mind.
article_snippet.sent: Of course, there's nothing new about that: human brains have been changing, adapting and developing in response to outside stimuli for centuries.
article_snippet.sent: And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behaviour and our characteristics.
article_snippet.sent: In short, the modern world could well be altering our human identity.'