The brain is much more agile and flexible than we think.
A recently published study has completely changed the medical world’s perception of the brain, more specifically how the brain controls the body. Previously, it was thought that specific movements of the arms or legs were governed by a fixed region of the brain. But this study shows that, when one part of the body is disabled, the compensatory movement of another part (for example, the left hand writes instead of the right hand, or the mouth holds objects instead of the right hand) activates the part of the brain. dominate the disabled area. This is a breakthrough change, when moving from an anatomical location specific concept to a functional one.
“I’m surprised that we’ve been wrong for so long,” said Tamar Makin, a neurologist at the University of London, UK. “If these analyzes are correct, its applications are extremely broad.”
The study was designed with two groups: the study group consisted of 17 volunteers who were born with only one hand, and 24 people with both hands were used as the control group. Research subjects were asked to perform 5 common operations in daily life, and at the same time, fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) images were recorded.
“We found that the area of the brain that controls the hand that has lost its activation when moving a lot of other parts in people born with only one hand,” Makin said. “The areas of the body that work to compensate for the deficiency of the hand are enhanced with active areas to increase flexibility for daily activities.”
This is also what happened to Zion Li Aguila Velez, a 6-year-old boy who lost both arms by birth. He has to use two legs instead of both hands in all his daily activities. Alexandria Aguila Velez, the boy’s adoptive mother, said that when she tried to use two prosthetic hands to help the boy, he was unable to do anything. “We tried really hard, but he cried and just wanted to do things with his two feet. In the end, I had to remove the two prosthetic arms and follow the boy’s wishes,” Alenxandria said.
Interestingly, Zion’s brain proved to be more responsive to the disability. “ The brain gets information from parts of the body,” explains James Giordano, professor of neurology at Georgetown University. When tasked with completing an action, the brain will try to complete it with what it has. No arms – that’s okay, because your brain will very quickly train your legs to do that.”
Unlike congenital cases, if an accident takes a part of your leg or arm, things will become very difficult. That’s when the brain has to reset almost all the nerve pathways that govern the movement of that limb, which are already deeply imprinted transmission pathways. Rehabilitation modalities, as well as advanced technologies such as transcranial electrical stimulation, or magnetic stimulation can help speed this process.
Prof Giordano added: “I think this study sheds light on a long-standing question: The brain is capable of restructuring itself. In this study, it can be seen that motor and sensory functions have been completely reoriented, and thereby confirm that the brain is much more flexible than we thought.”