Brain neurons mapped in a 3D image

So far this book I'm reading "This is your brain on music", has been a bit slow moving. It is however now getting very interesting. The first couple of chapters have been long and detailed, as to understand much of what he talks about in the rest of the book (the way music interacts with the brain) requires arduously getting a basic understanding of how music is written and the characteristics of music. Have persevered though as I think it will be worth it for the understanding of the subject.

One particular thing I read yesterday was about the neurons in the brain, and the reason why the brain is such a hugely powerful thing, vastly beyond anything that exists today even with our latest computer technology. I thought my new little plastic brain was just marvellous, powering through things as never before. But it seems, my own brain (as fucked up as it is) is massively better (something that comes as a bit of a surprise to me!). 

Firstly, perhaps my brain isn't so fucked up anymore. After last years brain injury I just assumed that whatever I was left with after about 6 months was what I'd be living with for the rest of my life. Now I'm not so sure. I learn from the book that the brain has an ability to reorganise itself, a recent discovery, after a brain injury. Mental functions can actually move to other undamaged regions of the brain, something they now call "neuroplasticity". It would make sense therefore to infer that organising and putting together a blog such as this on a daily basis, is therefore helpful as a catalyst to regaining my mental functions. The brain perhaps is encouraged to reorganise itself to provide the functioning necessary to post. 

And I was amazed to read not only about neuroplasticity, but also about the capacity the brain has. Certainly far beyond anything I'd have imagined. From the book:

Each neuron is connected to other neurons - usually one thousand to ten thousand others. Just four neurons can be connected in sixty-three ways, or not at all, for a total of sixty-four possibilities. As the number of neurons increases, the number of possible connections grows exponentially.
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The number of combinations becomes so large that it is unlikely that we will ever understand all the possible connections in the brain, or what they mean. The number of combinations possible - and hence the number of possible different thoughts or brain states each of us can have - exceeds the number of known particles in the entire known universe.
This is your brain on music - Daniel J. Levitin.

Today I read also about an absolutely fantastic thing they've done, somehow being able to make a 3D map of the human brains neural structure:

 

Levitin also describes how music affects many different parts of the brain. Perhaps listening to music itself is therefore beneficial to increasing brain activity and therefore helpful in recovering from brain injury or mental illness? Certainly an interesting thought!