The Brain That Changes Itself

Chapter 2
Building Herself a Better Brain
A Woman Labeled "Retarded" Discovers How to Heal Herself
The scientists who make important discoveries about the brain are often those
whose own brains are extraordinary, working on those whose brains are damaged.
It is rare that the person who makes an important discovery is the one with the
defect, but there are some exceptions. Barbara Arrowsmith Young is one of these.
"Asymmetry" is the word that best describes her mind when she was a schoolgirl.
Born in Toronto in 1951 and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Barbara had areas
of brilliance as a child — her auditory and visual memory both tested in the
ninety-ninth percentile. Her frontal lobes were remarkably developed, giving her
a driven, dogged quality. But her brain was "asymmetrical," meaning that these
exceptional abilities coexisted with areas of retardation.
This asymmetry left its chaotic handwriting on her body as well. Her mother
made a joke of it. "The obstetrician must have yanked you out by your right leg,"
which was longer than her left, causing her pelvis to shift. Her right arm never
straightened, her right side was larger than her left, her left eye less alert, Her
spine was asymmetrical and twisted with scoliosis.
She had a confusing assortment of serious learning disabilities.
The area of her brain devoted to speech, Broca's area, was not working properly,
so she had trouble pronouncing words. She also lacked the capacity for spatial
reasoning. When we wish to move our bodies in space, we use spatial reasoning
to construct an imaginary pathway in our heads before executing our movements.
Spatial reasoning is important for a baby crawling, a dentist drilling a tooth, a
hockey player planning his moves. One day when Barbara was three she decided
to play matador and bull. She was the bull, and the car in the driveway was the
matador's cape. She charged, thinking she would swerve and avoid it, but she
misjudged the space and ran into the car, ripping her head open. Her mother
declared she would be surprised if Barbara lived another year.
Spatial reasoning is also necessary for forming a mental map of where things are.
We use this kind of reasoning to organize our desks or remember where we have
left our keys. Barbara lost everything all the time. With no mental map of things
in space, out of sight was literally out of mind, so she became a "pile person" and
had to keep everything she was playing with or working on in front of her in piles,
and her closets and dressers open. Outdoors she was always getting lost.
She also had a "kinesthetic" problem. Kinesthetic perception allows us to be
aware of where our body or limbs are in space, enabling us to control and