Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The Brain's Plasticity
One thing I find interesting about the brain is its plastcity. When someone has a brain injury and one part of the brain cannot serve its function, the brain uses that area for a different function. The brain reorganizes itself to help the person. For example, if you have ever tried to use your finger to read Braille, it seems almost impossible to feels the different dots since they are so close together. But for someone who is blind and therefore unable to read, the sensory cortex will partially reorganize itself. It will use the occipital lobe (which is normally used for vision) to increase the sense of touch. The finger will therefore be more sensitive than the average person's finger. They will be able to feel the dots of Braille with greater ability, even though they are really close together and it is harder for the average human. To me this is like the brains way of being fair to the damaged person since it is giving back something with greater ability.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think the brain's plasticity is awesome. I wonder though if you can train the brain to have more plasticity. What I mean is as follows: in your braille case, can you train a person who has the ability to see to have the same level of reading ability of braille as someone who is blind? You described that the sensory cortex will partially reorganize itself and the occipital lobe will increase the sense of touch. But why does this only have to happen when an error, such as blindness, occurs? Can we come to a discovery or breakthrough that would enable plasticity to occur without damage or mutations?
ReplyDelete