Working in Movement

Movement is a two-way street. Once we decide to move, "messages" from the brain travel through the nervous system to initiate the desired movement. But that's not the end of the messages, In a flash (60 milliseconds) sensors in the body send information back to the brain about how it went. Based on this feedback, the motor cortex can fine tune the movement, make it just right to fit the intention of the movement. That's how it's supposed to work, this sense of proprioception. It doesn't always function as well as it could, but most of the time it's a pretty remarkable, though ordinary, thing.

It all went terribly wrong for Ian Waterman one day. As he relates in Learning to Walk Again, he lost the ability to control his movements. With his proprioceptive sense essentially shot, he was helpless, depending on 24-hour care.

Although one of Waterman's key senses was compromised, his learning ability was not. Remarkably, using his visual sense and lots of focus and will power, Waterman gradually taught himself how to function. At first, just sitting up unaided was a major accomplishment. Soon, like a developing child, he learned to combine simple movements into more complex (and useful) ones. He learned to walk, the only one of the people known to suffer from the non-proprioceptive condition.

The thing that's so remarkable for me is the resilience of the human capacity to learn and adapt, under almost impossible conditions. That's a great thing to celebrate.

(There is a link on the website to video of Waterman. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get it to work.)