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cschoonover's picture

brain, behavior, and memory

 In our discussion this past week about how the brain=behavior to be very interesting. It still seems a little hard to believe, however, the evidence is compelling. The complex ability of the brain also brought another thought to mind: how is it that when one or more of our senses is compromised, the others compensate? And why do some people have a greater capacity for memory than others? Is there a correlation between depressed senses and memory?

 
Helen Keller wrote her autobiography The Story of My Life using a non-braille typewriter. This indicates that she had to have written it from memory, a task I don’t think I could complete. It seems to me that the memory part of the brain becomes more active as a response to the need to survive, an adaptation if you will. As I mentioned in my introduction, my sister has cerebral palsy and is almost blind. She goes through the school day using only her ears to learn. It always shocks me how much more she remembers compared to me. She can recall, ten years later, who gave her a certain holiday gift, or a conversation that happened many months ago.  I guess what I am really wondering is does the body’s inability to utilize a certain sense cause the brain to search for another method to come to the same end point? And are there other manifestations of this phenomenon besides memory? If this is true, then this is further evidence that the brain dictates behavior.

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