A Woman Perpetually Falling

In the article we read, a neuroscientist named Paul Bach-y-Rita who investigated an "isolated" research on the plasticity and that neural impulses are more homogeneous that scientists had previously believed. It begins by describing Cheryl, a woman who has been suffering from a disabled connection of her vestibular apparatus sending mixed signals to her brain. Because she has lost the receptors from her spinal cord and into her brain for proper processing, Cheryl suffers from consistent balance issues and often hears ringing in her ears. Bach-y-Rita provided a solution for her by implanting a sensory controller in tongue-- using her mouth fluids to detect where she is in space. What was most surprising form the experiment was not only that the tongue implant significantly improved her sense of balance, but Cheryl's balance continued to improve to the point of normality, even when she did not have the implant inside. Additional research with blind patients, animals, and specificity of brain parts shows that our bodies are primarily controlled by the brain because of how it processes sensory neurons. Our eyes are not the ones necessarily seeing, but rather the information our brains receive through sensory and motor neurons up the spinal cord that tell the brain to see. Bach-y-Rita extended this belief by helping patients who had disabled senses by reconnecting the sensor of that part to a different part of the body that was received by the brain more efficiently. His father was also an example of the re-direction of our brain's signals, as he learned to type again eventually after suffering a stroke. Even though he had a large lesion in his brainstem, Pedro-Bach Rita was still able to regain some of the skills he had lost after his stroke. He concludes his research saying that the brain is able to develop new processing signals over a period of time, and that each part of the brain is not solely reliant of it's own responsibility. Each part has multiple roles in controlling the body and those senses can be manipulated through consistent reconnection and practice.


"These 'secondary' neural pathways are 'unmasked,' or exposed, and, with use, strengthened. This 'unmasking' is generally thought to be one of the main ways the plastic brain reorganizes itself."
    The brain is not subject to just one pathway for each sensory neuron, but the path it takes through our brains can be changed and redirected if needed. The plasticity of the neurons allows for those who have suffered form stroke and inhibited senses to regain some abilities through time and persistence.

"It is the recovery of the vestibular function. When she moves her head, she can keep her focus on her target-- the link between the visual and vestibular systems is also recovered."
    I had always thought that each part of the brain was responsible for very specific roles and that those neurons traveling to and from those parts could not be as easily rewired to other the parts. Cheryl is an example of the brain can adapt to faulty connections, and still function normally with assistance through her tongue implant.

"This meant that even if speech tended to be processed in the left hemisphere, (as Broca's area) claimed, the brain might be plastic enough to reorganize itself, if necessary."
      I had known of people regaining their vision through a special type of glasses or people re-learning how to walk after a serious injury, but I did not know that is was partially due to our brain's ability to redirect the signals, previously destroyed, to another part of the brain that changes to allow us to see or walk again.