One of the things that has never ceased to amaze me is the
adaptability of animals to a various range of situations. While sitting in one
of my psychology classes, I listened to a professor explain the details of how
bats and dolphins alike are able to create echoing vibration in order to detect
the presence of different objects in their environment. Most are aware of the
limited visibility that bats posses, but it was news to me that dolphins were
actually able to perform the same echoing vibration mechanism. What
particularly came to interest me was the Indus dolphin. This amazing creature
is able to use echolocation to detect objects, and oh yeah, this dolphin is blind!
In fact, many dolphins are able to detect the shape of an object before they
can actually see it. This sonar-like ability equips dolphins with a full range
of awareness of their surroundings.
As if the fact that dolphins using echolocation to determine
the shape and location of objects didn’t blow my mind enough, my professor then
took things a step further. I mean she really pulled out the big guns here.
After the explanation of dolphins and their sonar tricks she then proceeded to
show us a video of a boy named Ben
Underwood. At a young age, it was determined that Ben had cancer in both of his
eyes, leaving him completely blind. In order to combat his blindness, Ben
developed a miraculous skill, the ability to use sonar location to determine
the location of objects. Not much unlike dolphins, Ben would create a clicking
sound with his mouth that would help him to identify his surroundings. Ben had
even mastered his sonar clicking skills to the point where he was able to
successfully shoot basketballs! In order to truly grasp how amazing such a
skill is I highly advise watching this short YouTube link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUXh-X1iveU).
The drive of humans along with the power that sound can
possess over our lives is what really struck me about Ben’s story. I couldn’t
help but think about Ben and the wonderful things he could do when reading the
book Guitar Zero by Gary Marcus. In this book Marcus strives to learn
how to play the guitar. He writes on the aspects that make for decent music
players and decent music. He also writes over some of the keys that help to
drive musicians towards success, such as good instructors for example. One of
the things in his book that truly stuck out to me (and my newly found interest
in echolocation) was the idea of relocating neural tissue. In his book Marcus
mentions that for people who are born congenitally blind, some are able to
relocate some of their neural tissue that was intended for their eyes, and use
it for their hearing. Marcus also comments that there are also string players
that have a large amount of cortical representation dedicated to their fingers,
which in turn makes their fingers more sensitive to the strings of their
instruments. This concept captivated me. How amazing is it that we are able to
unconsciously relocate neural tissue and cortical areas of our brain in order
to adjust to our personal lives?
Marcus also mentions in his book a conversation that he had
with a man named Tobias. In this conversation he and Tobias talked about a
student that Tobias had whom they referred to as Richard. Richard was just a
teenager, and yet was considered to be by far the best student that Marcus had
ever had. Richard was able to hear pieces of music and repeat them almost
perfectly. So what was it that made Richard an even more inspiring student than
his unique ability to accurately repeat music? Richard was congenitally blind,
and may have also been autistic. Richard’s story also aligns with the
fascinating concept of the capabilities of humans. He was able to overcome the
hurdle of his blindness alongside with his autism, and become an awe-inspiring
musician. He was able to repeat a complicated seven-minute song upon hearing it
only once. He was even able to accurately estimate the velocity of a car by
listening to how quickly or slowly the car thumped over the planks of a given
bridge. If that doesn’t show the adaptability of humans, than I’m not quite
sure what does.
If humans are able to see using echolocation, play music
based on hearing sounds alone, play basketball via clicking vibrations, and
determine velocity just by listening and counting, then what limits are there
to what can be done? If a person born blind can relocate neural tissue in order
to improve his hearing then what other adaptations are possible? The
adaptations of humans knows no bounds and
to me is one of the things that makes them so incredible.
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