Working in Movement

Brain plasticity promotes learning, change and, in some cases, recovery of function after an injury. Usually the recovery of function efforts closely follows the original injury. But what if the injury occurred some time ago, years or even decades ago? Can the old dog really learn new tricks, if the old dog suffered nervous system damage some time ago?

Happily, the qualified answer is yes, at least according to the folks at NovaVision. The company has developed a method of therapy to restore vision function in people who have had strokes or other brain injuries. An article in Bioworld Online details the company's approach, one based on using a personal computer that can be done at home after initial training.

The basic premise is the remarkable plasticity of the human brain. That is, according to the article, the ability of partially damaged neurons in the brain to compensate for injury, in this case to vision, and adjust their activity in response to stimulation from the environment. The partially damaged neurons in this case are those that lie between the unharmed visual cells and those totally devastated by the lesion of the stroke. The approach first precisely identifies these cells, then uses successive approximations of fine visual discrimination to recruit them into the person's visual functioning. The company reports that 65% of those undergoing the treatment improve their visual functioning after six months of treatment.

Even more remarkably, the company reports treating some who suffered lesions years ago, beyond commonly accepted threshold of a year to six months after the stroke or development of the lesion. The article even notes work on a World War II veteran and shown some fairly remarkable results.

Cortical plasticity is exciting, and many fields are working with different approaches of tapping into it. Many of these work with the very young, and with some impressive results. But the idea that plasticity does not decrease with age, or even the age of a lesion to the brain, opens huge areas of possibility.

The even more remarkable thing is that Moshe Feldenkrais recognized and worked with this plasticity many years ago. I wonder what he would be doing today?