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The Human Mind & Body: Capable of Anything
In reading the most recent blog posts, I think that Brie raises a very valid point. Being a psych major myself, I have before thought about the possiblity that we are born with far greater capabilities than we actually use in our daily lives, and thus throughout the span of our entire lives. Knowing that human development is one of the longest developmental periods among animals, we can recognize that human beings are extremely vulnerable to external factors from birth. Doesn't this in fact acknoweldege that human beings are one of the most adaptable beings that have the ability to recognize a barrage of stimuli if given the chance? Knowing that infants are capable of mimicing & in time, learning, all of the different languages of the world, I believe that we are susceptible to & thus capable of utlizing many different stimuli.
For example, I firmly believe that if an infant was born in a cave and lived in darkness a considerable amount of his/her life that this individual would have far better night vision (& maybe vision for that matter), in comparison to an ordinary human being. Is this really that far-reaching? There are stories of children being born blind that have a much better sensation for when an individual enters a room or can decipher emotion just from speaking without any image of facial expression. Overall, one could state that they can "sense" the presence & behavior of human life better than an individual with sight.
In conclusion, I do believe that human beings are capable of having nervous systems that are far more "in-touch" with a vast variety of stimuli, however, without being exposed to this stimuli, our capability of mastering the inputs and outputs from our external environment is lost. Furthermore, I think we should take this topic one step further and ask ourselves: what do we believe the human mind & body is incapable of, if given exposure & time to learn?