A Woman Perpetually Falling

Cheryl is one of few people who have lost their sense of balance. Ever since being prescribed an excessive amount of gentamicin to treat an infection, her inner ear structures have been damaged, including her vestibular apparatus. The vestibular apparatus is the organ that gives a person his sense of space and orientation through the movement of fluids. Since she lost all sense of balance, she could no longer stand without falling, sometimes losing touch of even the ground. Bach-y-Rita, a well qualified neurologist, developed a helmet that would help replace the vestibular apparatus and transmit signals to the brain via tongue. Sensory signals now bypass the damaged vestibular apparatus to go straight to the area of the brain that processes balance. Amazingly, the longer the helmet is worn, the longer the "residual effect" lasted, meaning she could stay balanced without the help of the device. Long term use also eventually makes permanent adjustments to the brain so that the residual effect last longer every time. The amazing ability of the brain to take over the jobs of damaged brain parts proves the plasticity of the brain.

"[Cheryl] suffers from mental fatigue, as well, from being on constant high alert. It takes a lot of brain power to maintain an upright position--brain power that is taken away from such mental functions as memory and the ability to calculate and reason" (5). Her pain doesn't just stop with her loss of balance--everything about her life is damaged as a result. What is living if she can't do anything beyond trying to stay sane? Most of us take being able to stand for granted, but what she and others like her go through daily reminds the rest of us that we really should be grateful for even the small things.

"...It did keep up. Over the next year Cheryl wore the device more frequently to get relief and build up her residual effect. Her residual effect progressed to multiple hours, to days, and then to four months. Now she does not use the device at all and longer considers herself a Wobbler" (10). The capability for the brain to find new ways to compensate for damages sensory parts is truly mystifying. It can re train itself to bypass the vestibular apparatus and still process the sense of space and orientation--it seems like the brain can do more things than it can't.

"...my father had had a huge lesion from his stroke and that it had never healed, even though he recovered all those functions" (23). This time, it wasn't just a missing sensory organ. 97% of the nerves in that father's cerebral cortex and spine were destroyed. Because this cortex is mainly responsible for control in movement, he had become paralyzed. Pedro (the father), was somehow able to regain his ability to move even though the main processor for movement was permanently damaged. This just further proves how plastic the brain is in it's ability to reorganize and recover lost functions.