Evidence for structural plasticity in humans: Comment on Thomas and Baker (2012)

Thomas and Baker (2012) have provided a balanced and critical review of the scientific evidence claiming that training interventions have the capacity to alter the structural morphology of the brain. Here I provide some additional considerations when reading and interpreting both the review and the original empirical articles. Research proposing to examine the capacity for structural brain plasticity needs to contemplate methodological issues and factors that could moderate or mask potentially interesting effects. Overall, although this area of research is in need of circumspection, it also could have transformative implications if structural brain plasticity in humans is possible.