Assuming embodied cognition is the underpinning mechanism.
Robotics, embodied cognition
Question
Would one paralysed from birth be able create/learn necessary thought processes necessary for limb movement?
All Answers (17)
-
This is not directly related, but may be of interest: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13554794.2011.556128 -
Depending on the age of the person and the length of time without muscle activation dueo t paralys. There are atrophies and orthopedic changes which will limit the feedforward cognitiv proceses for motor control. Conductive Education was created in Hungary utilizing Luria and Vigotzky's verbal regulation of motor control initiate and activate funcional motor patterns. De to the trophic nature of the efferent pathways of the nervous system, the muscles atrophy and their ability to contract and activate in synergistic manner will be hindered to respond to cognitive estrategias to generare movement. The younger the person, the higher the potencial to be successfull with this approach for motor control. -
I recommend Peter Brugger's work on imagined limb movements in subjects who don't possess these limbs. E.g., http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1355617708080041 -
Would this be relevant?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17629484 -
There are some wonderful articles here which I intend to digest more fully. Thank you to those who have taken the time to respond to my question so far. I am sure I will have subsidiary questions I'd like to pose as a result of the articles mentioned thus far. Watch this space! -
It is hard to actually imagine an embryo, and later a fetus growing paralyzed since movement is at the root of development in utero... So the question cannot be formulated this way. No no matter what, if it was possible for a newborn to get paralyzed at birth, it would have already created the pathways for limbs movements. Now, if you check the work from Bach-Y-Rita, with the concept of brain plasticity and dorming path (see how he helped a blind and a wobler using their back and their tongue as a signal detection device to replace eyes or ear). The answer is yes, as long as you have some form of sensory receptors and signals and dorming paths, you can in principle use multi-sensorial integration to cope for the deficiency in another sense. -
I would suggest this paper:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20828580 -
Dear Lorraine
The movements of the members, as I understand, are not necessarily aware, however, targeted. Occur in standard reflex arc. In this case, depending on the age of the "paralyzed", which will begin the development of these and depending on the etiology, technological resources and motivation, there are possibilities. However, not so simple, since, of course, involves many factors and long time. -
Your question is difficult to answer without out clarification of what you mean:
"Would one paralysed from birth be able create/learn necessary thought processes necessary for limb movement?"
It sounds like you are approaching it from the perspective of robotics with your keywords and final comment: "Assuming embodied cognition is the underpinning mechanism."
Some of the responders discuss things that are relevant to a Brain Computer Interface - but these do not in general depend on the brain activity associated with the specific movement to be replaced by a similar limb prosthetic, or supported by an alternate device such as a wheelchair. The answer here is clearly yes.
Another possibility is that the underlying cause of the paralysis is treated, so that the usual neural pathways could effect movement in the usual way - this will require late learning, when areas of the brain that are usually involved with movement may have been hijacked for other purposes, and it will indeed be a matter of learning, but they will take a long time to reach normal performance levels, if ever - although they should be able to make sufficient progress to be self-mobile even though they are likely to be learning to walk and reach in a different way and with much less brain area allocated, as well as the issue of atrophy to deal with.
Other respondents try to tease out the precise age of the paralysis and the precise age of intervention, and the precise cause of paralysis. As Josita points out, things aren't that simple and the question as phrased is rather abstract and hypothetical. It would help if you could be more concrete and more precise.
cheers,
David -
Hi Lorraine,
I apologise in advance, as I am unsure of the answer to your tantalising question. If this were a case I was presented with, I would definitely like to know more about the cause of paralysis. As for whether a congenitally paralysed individual could learn to feel or move, I am hoping that I can offer some indirectly relevant suggestions:
Evidence suggests that our sense of body ownership is not as inflexible as it once was thought to be. You only have to look at something like the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI) to see that the CNS can be tricked into momentarily acting as if a prosthesis is an extension of it. Then there is research on phantom limbs - a body part that no longer is attached to one's body can still be perceived (and often this is associated with pain, as if the phantom limb is itchy). The RHI paradigm can be used to teach people suffering from phantom limb syndrome to "forget" about their invisible source of pain.
All the best,
Justin -
I think the important thing is that mirror neuron system is affected or not by the cause of paralysis, as I think it suggests Giacomo Novembre.
As for training, (Alan Langus), it is probably not the same perceive to do an action, that perceive without intention to act. See, Jeannerod, M. (1994) The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 17 , 187-245.
Jorge -
In answer to Josita's comment, individuals with spina bifida may be born with no leg movements. In adulthood some of these do report imagining leg movements, but it is difficult to really understand what they are imagining. Very few people with a high enough lesion to remove arm movements survive to adulthood. -
Early intervention may uplift the condition or decrease the worst en conditions in future but it depends upon the loss is permanent or not.some times the early intervention and treatment make the adjacent tissue take over the functions of damaged nerve centres
-
-
Sorry, here is the righ link http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=artificial-limbs-controlled-by-thought&WT.mc_id=SA_CAT_BS_20120831
-
Because these cases are relatively rare, you might be interested by our recent open-access paper about an individual with congenital absence of upper limbs (Vannuscorps, Pillon & Andres, Frontiers Human Neuroscience, 2012) :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23125830
Results showed that, despite the absence of real or imagined motor experience, his performance in hand laterality judgments is influenced by biomechanical constraints in the same way as controls. We discuss the hypothesis that visual processes contribute to biomechanical knowledge.
