Sorry I haven’t been blogging so much.
There’s an interesting online Scientific American article.
It’s about neurogenesis adaptability research at Johns Hopkins.
. . . The team found that there is a two-week window, or critical
period, about a month after these new cells hatch during which they
act like the neurons of a newborn baby.
That’s pretty hopeful, though it does suggest that there’s also a
month-long pipeline for a neurogenesis program to reach its peak.
That could explain some of my starting troubles. It also explains
something else I feel.
Weirdly, although I clearly am far worse at plenty of skills than I
was before I developed my disease, the daily neurogenesis gives
my thinking a kind of immediate and adaptable feel that I used to have
only when I was a kid, and later, when I biked to class in college.
But that feeling is deceptive, since I clearly can’t do as much now.
It confuses other people, because I look more awake and aware
than most people, and even can be more energetic strictly at doing
simple things or things I do alot. People come to wrong conclusions
about my abilities or get confused trying to judge me.
I also have a comment about something else in the article:
“Unfortunately, adult neurogenesis is limited to very specific
structures of the brain and, therefore, the remainder of the brain is
left with reduced levels of plasticity typical of ‘old’ cells.”
This is true. You old cells will stay, more or less, and become more
and more swiss-cheese-like, especially for us HD patients. But
Properties of computer neural net simulations give me some hope that
that can avoid being too limiting. Neural nets are intrinsically very
adaptable to additions and subtractions. BUT, using long-term
neurogenesis deliberately to reverse HD and other neurodegenerative
diseases is utterly new; it’s only been done unwittingly, at most. We
don’t know how it will work out.
You do, I think, have to make sure and regularly practice skills that
you want back or want to have instead. I regularly practice my
pre-disease skills, though not as much as I would wish.
There is some evidence I see that long-term neurogenesis can be
successful. I have a hobby of reading biographies, especially
Presidential ones. Virtually every President has, at least exercised
more than usual at some point. All the ones in my lifetime have had
daily serious routines. The current one even shares my habit of
biking more or less first thing each day. For all we always like to
grumble about stupidity of Presidents in office, he did get there
somehow.
And I’ve seen a case or two of HD patients that exercise alot having
very slow onsets.
