In looking for a way to stimulate this area shaded in blue, tDCS was recommended. I've been told that area corresponds to the motor and somatosensory cortex.
tDCS is primarily done on your own. Given electricity and a brain, almost anyone can do it. Well, I don't trust almost anyone. tDCS is stimulating the brain with electricity. It stands for Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation.
First I need to know what it is.
I don't want my head cut open again, so this may be the way to go. Why isn't this closed head technique as studied as Deep Brain Stimulation?
It isn't as available or regulated as the Deep Brain Stimulation is available. The closed-head stimulation, tDCS, is the Wild West of brain stimulation.
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I worried about placement. I wanted to stimulate the motor cortex and most devices were aimed at the front of the brain. Then I stumbled on sports. Athletics target this area.
It looks like the devices used for athletics can be moved to target other brain lobes.
A band such as this, may be positioned to hit the side of the head. I haven't found this particular device for sale. I could only find this picture.
This is looking like the direction I am going. I might be the guinea pig. I'll have to look at university programs now. I'd like skilled people placing this thing on my head.
The
man is answering a question about trading eyesight for IQ. I am doing
another physical skill now, but this is along the same lines that I am
experiencing. My eyesight is good enough to get by. I'm no longer blind
in my right eye and I can see the computer screen.
Currently,
I am working on swallowing. I swallow throughout the day, but it is not
controlled. I cannot eat and have a feeding-tube for nutrition. I
remember dealing with this issue years ago with some toddlers. Parents
were recommended lollipops. I now use a lollipop.
When patients have a rare deadly disease, they need to be in clinical trials.
I didn't have cancer, but it was just as deadly. It was immediate pending death due to placement.
I'm
still here and the anomaly in my brain is gone. I'd say the clinical
trial worked. This was just one issue in a list of many that had to be
resolved. It was probably the most important issue, because I couldn't
do anything if I was dead.
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Since
I immediately wouldn't die, I could think about other issues I had. "I
could think." That meant I was misdiagnosed. I searched around and came
up with Locked-In Syndrome.
I now look like a person recovering from Locked-In Syndrome.
I am writing this from the
'other side of the coin' so to speak. I am writing this with
adaptations I and others made long ago. If not for this clear writing,
it could be said that I was mentally impaired.
First,
just what is it I am doing? I am using the pointer finger of my left
hand to hit and press letter keys to spell words that I organize into
sentences. We then get into paragraph and essay construction that I
learned in grade school.
Typing
on the computer wasn't instant. Before I could hunt out letters on a
keyboard, I had to find them on a communication board. Blinking 'yes/no'
for a letter was many years ago, and is where finding and identifying a
letter began.
Since
I am using only one finger, I must be doing something special to make
capital letters and hit multiple keys, like <ctrl> <alt> <del>. Computers come
with accessibility features built right in. That particular one is
called Sticky Keys. There are many adaptations. This and a lot of
computers call the program Ease of Access. An Occupational Therapist in
Southern California first set it up for me years ago. It was called something else back then. I don't need all
the adaptations now. I just pretty much need the Sticky Keys. (There
used to be an important one called Bouncy Keys. What happens on a
computer if you hold a key down too long? Too long can be a whole
second. I was getting mmmmmaanyyy letters.)
With
identifying letters, came the ability to sit up and move an arm by having lots of therapy. It was a combination of Speech, Occupational, and Physical
therapies. You can't single out one. It's like a pie. If you have a
cherry pie, but only single out the cherries, you have a different
dessert. (Cherries Jubilee)
Now
that I communicate clearly, you see there is no cognitive impairment.
This means communication and cognition are mixed together.
Sure,
a cognitively impaired person won't communicate. What about
communication disabilities, though? People who don't communicate are
being called cognitively impaired. This isn't right.
A
so-called 'cognitively impaired' person who is finally able to
communicate through higher technologies will challenge the system not
set up to handle communicative impairments. This is Locked-In Syndrome. This is what is happening with the man who has been called 'Ghost Boy,' Martin Pistorius.
This essay could be communication. I am still vegetative, although I am able to speak
somewhat. It might take me all day to type this with one finger, but I'm
not going anywhere. Besides, I know stuff you need to know. I doubt that all the people who see this are clairvoyant. They are reading this. Again, no special powers are being used.
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Sign language is just an adapted form of communication. I'm not exhibiting some mystical power. The hand movements aren't "spastic" like previously said. If anything, there is great cognitive skill going on here.
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Years ago, I became familiar with the following categories of intelligence disability:
Click to enlarge.
I'd be classified as "profound" when I first had my bleed. Why? Because we don't know. I'm going to disagree with Google and say profound impairment is impairment so severe, that the subject can't be tested. The definitions I kept getting on Google had numerical IQ scores. To illustrate look at the word "profound."
I am PROFOUND.
I was
(cherry pie)
Now I'm
(Cherries Jubilee)
Obviously, there is clear discrimination of communication. What is my diagnosis? Case closed.
* I have a BA in Psychology and an MA in Special Education. I have worked in disability, children's disability, and mental health. I have guest taught specifically on the topic of children with special needs issues.