Meet Dr. Susan Barry. Sue is a neurobiologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where she specializes in neuronal plasticity - or the brain’s capacity to change, specifically as it applies to visual perception.
It’s a subject that’s close to her heart. For years, Sue taught her students the conventional wisdom: that the human brain is highly adaptable in infancy, but loses the capacity to “rewire” in adulthood. In other words - much like the proverbial dog, you can’t teach an old brain new tricks. In 2002, something happened in Sue’s own life that forced her to re-shape what she taught her class - and how she viewed the world.
In the first “30 Second Science” video of our third season, we learn about Sue’s work teaching the brain how to learn. But what happened in Sue’s life outside the lab that forced her to re-examine how she approached her science? See for yourself, when Sue’s second video is released this Thursday, and we reveal her eye-opening “secret.”
