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Brie Stark's picture

We were discussing the

We were discussing the central process generators and I thought back to our Reeves discussion.  It is obvious that the central process generators of Reeve's extremities were not destroyed in any way, so I wonder if this lack of destruction of CPGs could lead to a more focused definition of what qualifies as paralysis.  Another interesting example I thought of was a friend of mine's sister -- at age 18, while diving, she broke her neck and became paralyzed from the neck down.  However, she began going to physical therapy (Operation Walk, Chicago) and learned how to walk again, despite not having any feeling in her legs.  She is also very mobile in her arms, despite having no feeling there.  Would this qualify as having damaged only her sensory neurons, while her motor neurons and CPGs remained intact?  This seems to justify another sort of definition/specification for paralysis (as doctors do still consider her to be a quadraplegic).

 I also have never thought of pain in the way of an 'out of the ordinary' response with which the brain does not know how to process.  In many ways, though, it makes sense.  On a personal level, I know that when I'm on an airplane in flight and I close my eyes, I get nauseated for a few seconds because my brain tells me that I'm flying a steady path but my perception feels a slight plummeting feeling. 

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