Re: [xmca] Plasticity and Physiotherapy

[Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net>]

Thanks Elizabeth (PDF attached).
That gives us the Kuhnian story (with an ethical twist)  of why 
neuroscience required a fixed machine for its discipline and how the 
paradigm shift occurred, but what is missing is how it was that outside 
of the discipline others knew that the brain changed. This is what 
intrigues me. How a discipline can maintain a fiction about its own 
object of study whilst outside the discipline people know it is a 
fiction. I am presuming it has a lot to do with the sociology of science 
and the status of the various sciences. But I will see if I can find 
something.

Andy

Elizabeth Fein wrote:
> Tobias Rees has a wonderful article in American Ethnologist 
> ("Being Neurologically Human Today: Life and Science and Adult 
> Cerebral Plasticity - An Ethical Analysis" Volume 37, Issue 1, 
> pages 150–166) that talks about the "regime of fixity" in 
> neuroscience, and the way this story of the brain has been 
> maintained over the years and is now being challenged. 
>
> Elizabeth Fein, Ph.D.
> University of Chicago
> Department of Comparative Human Development
> Postdoctoral Fellow, SociAbility 
> (847)559-3240
> efein@sociabilitychicago.org
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>   
> > Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2012 12:44:10 +1000
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu (on behalf of Andy Blunden 
> >     
> <ablunden@mira.net>)
>   
> > Subject: [xmca] Plasticity and Physiotherapy  
> > To: "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> >
> > On the theme of empirical evidence and the latest discoveries 
> >     
> of 
>   
> > neuroscience, this is one which has intrigued me, especially 
> >     
> since it 
>   
> > became personal. So far as I know, physiotherpists have known 
> >     
> for at 
>   
> > least two generations that brain damage can be repaired by 
> >     
> physical 
>   
> > exercise. But this scientific, empirical knowledge, 
> >     
> coexisted, at least 
>   
> > in some countries, with a dogma taught in school biology 
> >     
> classes, that 
>   
> > "no new brain cells are created after age X," making a total 
> >     
> mystery 
>   
> > (SFAICS) of all manner of learning processes which everyone 
> >     
> knows about 
> >from daily experience. Then we hear from the tribunes of 
> advanced 
>   
> > neuroscience, armed with all sorts of advanced brain imaging 
> >     
> equipment, 
>   
> > about "brain plasiticity" and what lowly physiotherpists know 
> >     
> about with 
>   
> > their own hands and patients knew about with their own 
> >     
> experience of 
>   
> > rehabilitation, became a new scientific discovery solely 
> >     
> because 
>   
> > (SAFAICS) it was expressed in the language of "the latest 
> >     
> discoveries of 
>   
> > neuroscience." On the plus side Norman Doigue's campaign has 
> >     
> had a 
>   
> > psychological impact on people undergoing rehabilitation, by 
> >     
> giving the 
>   
> > stamp of neuroscientific approval to the physiotherapists' 
> >     
> work and 
>   
> > giving renewed hope.
> >
> > Is there anyone who knows about the history of science in 
> >     
> this area that 
>   
> > can explain how this fiction was maintained?
> >
> > Andy
> > --
> > -------------------------------------------------------------
> >     
> -----------
>   
> > *Andy Blunden*
> > Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
> > Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
> > Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
> >
> > __________________________________________
> > _____
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >     

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts

Attachment: plasticity-ethics.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

__________________________________________
_____
xmca mailing list
xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca