In the March issue of Scientific American there is an article about learning in rats. These days you read things, in contrast to what was said in the past, about animals being able to grow new brain cells. In this article they claim to have shown that rats grow new cells, or at least preserve cells that newly arise, due specifically to learning. (I suppose they had to kill the rats to identify the new cells in their brains.) And the "slower" rats, or those challenged very seriously relative to their limits, grew or preserved more new cells than smarter, quicker-to-learn rats, or those whose tasks did not challenge them as much. That is, if they managed to learn at all.

So maybe I should stick with the therapist who presents me with so many challenges, the one that seems to me not to have much insight, rather than trying to find one that matches me better; maybe in the process of trying to cope, I will grow enough new cells so that I will come out with the same number as regular people already have...

But -- the stress is terrible.