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     The reafferent loop is a pretty amazing component of the human nervous system.  To be able to sense one’s own outputs and have such perception generate newly modified and ‘improved’ inputs is a very necessary and often overlooked aspect of our everyday lives. 

     Our discussion in class about a person reaching for something in the dark was very useful in elucidating the role of the reafferent loop for me.  By reaching for something that we can’t see and not finding or touching it, we talked about how the reafferent loop may play a role in being able to signal back to our nervous system, thereby generating an input which says that the desired item is not in the place that we have already checked.  Thus, this function facilitates additional, future searches for the same object in that it can effectively prevent us from checking the same area twice and allows us to eliminate places in which we have already directed outputs to explore.

      From this example, I began to wonder if it was at all possible that this reafferent loop was malfunctioning or compromised in people who have been diagnosed with severe amnesia or short term memory loss.  In cases where people do not remember whether or not they locked their door, turned off a light, remembered a person’s name, etc. (even after multiple attempts or interactions), is this loop simply not producing inputs which can be successfully redirected to their nervous system (in order to be used to influence that person’s related future nervous system outputs)?  Or is the problem that that person cannot retain the inputs that have been generated by this loop’s ability to sense nervous system outputs?