A true paradigm shift is taking place in the field of neurology. Earlier it was regarded as the science of exact diagnosis of incurable illnesses, re- signed to the dogma that damage to the central nervous system could not be repaired: "Once development is complete, the sources of growth and regeneration ofaxons and dendrites are irretrievably lost. In the adult brain the nerve paths are fixed and immutable - everything can die, but nothing can be...