Livewired Brain #5: Output Control
In earlier blogs, we’ve seen sensory substitution and sensory addition . But, as David Eagleman writes in Livewired : “That’s only the input half of the story.” Let’s next look into the output-related reorganization of the brain. When a limb is paralyzed, the motor system parts of the brain reorganize: “The motor areas optimize themselves to drive the available machinery.” In fact, brains are not “predefined for particular bodies”. Instead, brains “adapt themselves to move, interact, and succeed”: “(Watch a human baby and notice how she is) learning how her motor output corresponds to the sensory feedback she receives.” It doesn’t stop with babies, of course. We continue the “same learning method to attach extensions to our bodies”. That’s how we learn to ride a bicycle. Or a skateboard. Or to surf the waves: “The specifics of the devices’ weight, joints, movements and controllers – everything you can do with them – work their way into your brain circuitry.”...