{"id":1054,"date":"2010-01-21T23:17:38","date_gmt":"2010-01-22T03:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/2010\/01\/21\/a-visual-journey-%e2%80%94-chapter-the-third\/"},"modified":"2010-10-14T17:22:28","modified_gmt":"2010-10-14T21:22:28","slug":"a-visual-journey-%e2%80%94-chapter-the-third","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/archives\/1054","title":{"rendered":"A Visual Journey \u2014 chapter the third"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Our conventional and limited view of adult neuronal plasticity derives in part from the specific ways that scientists and physicians have designed laboratory experiments and clinical therapies. We cannot understand neuronal plasticity by studying brain circuits in isolation from the whole person. Only by considering a person\u2019s adaptations and response to her condition can we really explore the amazing plasticity of the human brain to rewire itself throughout life in order to recover from injury, learn new skills, improve perception, and even gain new qualia.<br \/>\n\u2014 Susan R. Barry, <em>Fixing my Gaze<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Susan Barry\u2019s book is certainly not for everyone, but like many works that explain a long misunderstood aspect of human health, reading it has been invaluable to someone who must personally face the unknown, accept a daunting challenge, and believe that one\u2019s own body has the capacity to respond positively to a holistic, self-corrective discipline. I&#8217;m thankful that the book was recommended and glad that I read it before undergoing my first therapy session tomorrow morning at the Vision and Learning Center. I feel fully committed and as prepared as possible for 30 weeks of treatment. I\u2019ve placed my confidence in people who might be dismissed as charlatans by some medical specialists, but that\u2019s nothing new for me. I even heard a top expert on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.charlierose.com\/view\/collection\/10702\">Charlie Rose Brain Series<\/a> recently insist that there is a \u201ccritical period\u201d during childhood that governs the development of visual perception, which makes it impossible to correct some eye disorders later in life, a misinterpretation of research that Barry says has been long discredited by scientists and vision therapists. Well, I\u2019m about to conduct my own experiment, under the guidance of individuals I consider to be knowledgeable, trustworthy professionals, and I\u2019m eager to get started. Enough preliminaries! I\u2019m fortunate to have the Center within a reasonable driving distance. Sure, I wish it wasn\u2019t so dang expensive, but isn\u2019t that why <em>The Guy in the Sky<\/em> grew plenty of oak trees on my knobs? Onward&#8230;  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our conventional and limited view of adult neuronal plasticity derives in part from the specific ways that scientists and physicians have designed laboratory experiments and clinical therapies. We cannot understand neuronal plasticity by studying brain circuits in isolation from the whole person. Only by considering a person\u2019s adaptations and response to her condition can we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,69,44,16,15,80,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xorph.com\/uj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}