The Writer Who Couldn't Read

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127745750

by jgg • 16 years ago

70 9 16 years ago

The fact that one of the most famous artistic minds in history was a composer who couldn't hear (for me) somewhat reduces the impact of the title.

Not to downplay his accomplishment in combating the condition- he is, to me, a very impressive man.

eru• 16 years ago

OK, but Beethoven's hearing problems weren't caused by his brain.

jallmann• 16 years ago

Engel was able to compensate for the loss of function in one cortex by shifting the work to another.

This probably gets more difficult with age; that he is able to do it at an advanced age is a testament to the plasticity of the brain. Remarkable.

tomjen3• 16 years ago

Not really. There are two reasons why people tend to change less as they age, none of which has anything to do with the brain:

Old people are just stubborn. There is little that is new for them, and they have habits that covers most, if not all, of what they do.

The older you get, the less time you have (think family and kids) which means you have less time to adopt new habits.

Your brain plasticity actually remains and there is very little physical reason not to improve as you age.

ramchip• 16 years ago

What about language acquisition? I think it's quite established that ability goes down with age. My experience seeing retired people (with plenty of free time) taking language classes is that they take quite a bit more time to achieve the same results. Pronunciation is especially hard to fix.

jbrennan• 16 years ago

I recall reading of a famous amnesiac who after much instruction, developed muscle memory for drawing mirror images (or something, ironically I forget…). Point being, muscle memory is quite a powerful construct.

I wonder how great of a typist Engel was/is?

mahmud• 16 years ago

Fascinating.

I had a similar experience while backpacking; sometimes I would get up at night to use the bathroom or drink water and I wouldn't remember what city or country I was in. I would have to retrace my journey from the last place I remember, and mentally arrive at where I am. The hardest part is figuring out the position of the light switch in a dark room.

edanm• 16 years ago

If you've never read it, I love Oliver Sack's book "The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat": http://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Mistook-His-Wife/dp/0684853949....

It's an amazing book full of stories just like in this article, about incredibly strange things that sometimes happen to people's brains.

It's also the scariest book I've ever read: it made me realize, more than at any other time, just how much of who I am is determined by my physical body, which is incredibly easy to break. There are stories in there of people who can't understand the idea of "left" anymore. They can see out of their right eye, not their left. They can turn right, but not left. They can eat food off their plate, but only on the right side. Freaky as hell.

The Writer Who Couldn't Read

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