VORB

The Unspeakable Odyssey of the Motionless Boy

Erik had a stroke at the juncture where his body meets his brain. What is that place called? I'm not exactly sure. Maybe the brain stem?
Anyway, the car accident that caused the stroke caused him to have "Locked-in Syndrome." Erik had no ways of communicating with anyone because his muscles and his brain were no longer connected. The only muscles he was still capable of using were the once that allowed him to look up or down.
A man named Kennedy devised a way to turn Erik's thoughts into speech. When he asked Erik to form vowel sounds, such as "O," a pattern of neurons fired when he thought about moving. But there wasn't any motion, it was like "a light switch with a dead bulb."
I couldn't imagine anything like this happening to anyone I know or love or care about in any way.
And the fact that he had such liveliness and such a strong personality when he was alive makes the story all the more sad. While watching 60 minutes with his mother (and he has no choice because its not like he can leave the room), he asked her "Why do you watch such crappy shows?"
37 minutes

Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12, Study Suggests

I found this article extremely interesting, I read it several times to make sure I fully understand it, and I'm still a bit confused.
So, up until age 8, humans only respond to positive feedback. Negative comments like scolding rarely make an impact on the brain for them. So when they do something wrong, scolding doesn't really do anything and is essentially pointless? That's where I'm confused.
According to the article, "learning from mistakes is complicated." And according to the research, "young children respond better to reward than punishment." Which makes sense, I suppose. I think I still respond better to reward sometimes.
But I just can't seem to agree with the statement that the young children don't respond to negative feedback as well. I remember specific times when I got in trouble in elementary school, because I was mortified that I did something wrong. Like when I didn't do my homework? That was the worst thing in the world, I was so terrified of what would happen to me. Now, if I don't do my homework, I just kind of say oh well and move on. Maybe its because I have SO many other things occupying my time, whereas when I was 6 or 7 all there was left to do other than homework was play.
I found this section of the article in particular to be most interesting:

"Is it experience?
Is that difference between eight- and twelve-year-olds the result of experience, or does it have to do with the way the brain develops? As yet, nobody has the answer. 'This kind of brain research has only been possible for the last ten years or so,' says Crone, 'and there are a lot more questions which have to be answered. But it is probably a combination of the brain maturing and experience.''

So no wonder I'm confused, no one else knows the answer to my questions.
32 minutes