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I think it is amazing that we are born with the innate ability to perform certain tasks and activities due to the presence of central pattern generators.  A question that comes to mind, and that we touched on during class, is to what extent the environment impacts these central pattern generators.  Specifically, I am interested in what causes CPGs to fade.  Can they ever fade?  Can they disappear completely?  Is it possible that they are still completely in tact in the nervous system, but have faded in the I-function, the part of the nervous system that you designate you.  Or maybe they have not faded in the I-function particularly, but the corollary discharge, the reporting mechanism for that particular activity or task, has faded.  We discussed that newborns have the ability to swim which is why it is recommended to parents to start swimming lessons with their kids very early on.  Yet, many parents wait until 2 or 3 or even later to put their kids in the water and at this point, the kid has lost the CPGs necessary to hold their breath under water and blow out.  Perhaps though, the child has not lost the ability, it is merely being blocked or overpowered by other CPGs corresponding to fear and anxiety.  Or they have faded just because the child has not used them; however, in the case of the baby bird experiment, the baby bird had not used its wings, yet the instant the jacket was removed the bird had total knowledge of how to fly.  Why does the young child not have total knowledge of how to swim when the CPGs necessary for swimming were present at birth?  It is clear that the environment must play some sort of role as we determined.  When I was learning how to swim I was terrified of the water.  My Mom would tell me put your face in the water and I would totally freak out.  I refused and every time I tried I was convinced I would drown even if I was in only three feet of water.  Then, one day, my Mom was completely fed up with my refusal and complaints to get in the water so she picked me up and threw me in the deep end.  I was shocked and pissed off, but I swam to the surface and to the side of the pool with no problem. That's how I learned to swim and that's how my CPGs for swimming were quickly rekindled and reactivated.  I remember getting to the edge of the pool and crying because I thought what she did was cruel, but I was also thinking, now that wasn't so bad.  It makes you wonder what other CPGs we have that our minds are continually blocking due to emotions and environmental factors.  Climbing, for example, is always blowing my mind.  I know that my body has all the necessary tools to land certain moves, but doing that move at 3,000+ feet can throw one off.  I remember this one mantel I was trying push up over and I kept falling and falling and the rope kept rubbing up on the edge of the mantel.  I knew the rope would be okay from a logical point of view, but the fact that I was hanging off a rock 2000 feet above the ground with a belayer 70 feet above me that couldn't see me freaked me out to the point where I became frozen and forgot everything.  I think becoming scared and hesitant impedes the functioning of certain CPGs.  Eventually I had to get over it and just do it.  I had to just detach myself and my fears from the situation - kind of like detaching the I-function because it was the I-function that was screwing up the corollary discharges I needed to coordinate that movement to power myself over the rock.  I guess this suggests that your experience of things is a function of not only sensory input and CPGs, but also your own state of mind.  I think that your state of mind can cloud your ability to activate certain CPGs.  Now, I understand why some climbers prefer a beer or two before they power up a rock...