Rewiring White Matter

Did you know that the brain’s white matter can be rewired? Brain imaging of children between the ages of 8 and 10 showed that the quality of white matter (the brain tissue that carries signals between areas of grey matter, where information is processed) improved substantially after the children received 100 hours of remedial training. After the training, imaging indicated that the capability of the white matter to transmit signals efficiently had increased, and testing showed the children could read better. That it is possible to rewire a brain's white matter may have important implications for treating reading disabilities and perhaps other developmental disorders, including autism.