The nobility of the mind may be recognised by its infinite plasticity. The body uses its plasticity to defend itself from unfavourable events. Thought uses its plasticity to embrace the whole, to mould itself on the whole.
Also the neuron, the constituent cell of nerve tissues, is structurally similar to a reed. It has a rhyzome: the cell body; it has roots: the dendrites; and a stem: the axon. Its vitality is apparent from its ability to change shape. Depending on environmental conditions, age, diet, medicines being taken, intellectual application, the neuron prospers or withers, its roots grow or atrophy, its stem lengthens or shortens.
The plastic processes of extension and retraction are not the exclusive province of the body-mind, but also belong to space-time that, according to the restricted theory of relativity, not yet disproved, expands and contracts depending on our manner of progress.
A neuron may be fertilised with growth factors (neurotrophic proteins) and fed with learning (an abstract form of nourishment or, at least, not at present measurable as matter (3), and a muscle cell grows with plastic proteins (preferably those that are legally permitted) and the instruction of a good trainer.