For myself, the intricacy of the brain is difficult to really fully comprehend. From the microscopic neural cells to the teamwork of the different lobes, it's astonishing to learn about all of the ways in which the brain controls our body. With one single malfunction, the whole system could be thrown off and we would be unable to accomplish many things. A simple bump on the head could turn life changing and an intense brain surgery could be life threatening. As we discussed in class, however, the brain exhibits a special characteristic that keeps malfunctions in the brain from affecting us entirely. This trait is referred to as plasticity and it explains the concept that our brain is able to altar parts of its structure in order to recover from an injury or in response to learning something new.
In order to help describe the miracles of the brain, I found an intriguing Youtube video that follows a young girl that undergoes a complete hemispheric lobotomy at a very young age. With only half of a brain left, it would seem that things would be very tough for her in terms of functioning, but impressively, it's not! Her story is a wonderful example of the brains plasticity because one can see that although an entire hemisphere of crucial material in the body was removed, the other parts of the brain are able to pick up the slack and allow the body to function close to its normal capacity. After seeing an example like this, it makes me wonder at what age this sort of recovery is impossible. Will Jodi (the young girl) continue to make progress or are there certain functions of the brain that can't be recovered?
The brain's ability to adapt and function is amazing! Interesting blog.