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adiflesher's picture

My questtion is

 

In the case of the second life brain control, is the person using the areas of his brain that control the legs and arms to walk, or are doing something more like stephen hawkings does when he writes, which is use his eyes to focus on the letter that he wants the computer to say. 

To be more explicit what happens to the part of the brain that is responsible for walking in a paraplegic.  I know in Phantom limbs the brain re-claims some of the territory of the Phantom limb for other functions. But what happens when the entire body is no longer neurologically connected to the brain. what does the brain do with that big map of the body?  

And in this paritcular case, can the brain still generate activity in those areas. What happens when you tell a paraplegic person to imagine themselves walking. Does their brain fire in the same way as it used to when they walked? Do paraplegic people have dreams of walking?  Do those patterns (in dreams or thoughts) become more and more diffuse over time? 

A

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