Dr. Bryan Kolb - Later Academics

With a rapidly growing reputation for superior science, Dr. Kolb came into some intellectual freedom. He chose to examine how the damaged brain repairs itself, both in rats and humans. He wondered why it was accepted that if brain damage occurs early, the odds of a full recovery were far greater than if the damage occurred later in life.

Through his experiments, he found that adult rats could recover from brain damage just as well as a pup (baby rat) under specific circumstances. This work was not well received. "I think it's safe to say no one believed us" Kolb says, referring to himself and Dr. Whishaw who had similar views on plasticity. But by 1984, when Kolb published Brain Plasticity and Behaviour, his evidence was nearly irrefutable.