How to Use a Fork

A neurologist illuminates the brain’s capacity to heal after injury in extraordinary tales of human recovery.

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. Neuroscience has since revealed how, far from falling silent, the injured brain actively forges new networks to regain lost capabilities. Neurologist and neuroscientist Orlando Swayne has spent decades immersed in this field and has witnessed brain-injured patients achieve recoveries that the old dogma would have deemed impossible. But clinical practice has still been slow to catch up. In How to Use a Fork, Swayne shines a light on the brain’s natural capacity for reorganization—or neuroplasticity—and shows how he and his colleagues harness it to transform the lives of patients. As he passionately argues, the brain continues to adapt after injury; now, so must we. Uniting fascinating science with remarkable stories of survival, his book is a hopeful testament to the extraordinary capacities of the brain and the human spirit.