ABSTRACT:
This paper presents portions of a ten-year self-reporting case study relative to movement, based on my book, “The Ghost In My Brain.” As an artificial intelligence and cognitive science professor I took 1,200 pages of detailed notes over the course of eight years, of the effects of mTBI, with no expectation of recovery. Symptoms included many deficits in movement: significant and varied balance difficulties; loss of where the body ends yielding, e.g., difficulty passing through doorways; loss of spatial relationships; catatonia, including progressive inability to initiate motion under brain stress; ability to dance but not walk; visually guiding the hands toward objects; seizures; loss of concepts such as "center" making it hard, e.g., to put keys in locks; inability to turn right; the "dolly zoom effect" when walking toward a distant goal; and so on. A clear pattern arises: when the mind cannot conceive spatial relationships, the body will not move. During eight years that included MRI, CT scan, neurocognitive testing, etc., medical science was consistent in the opinion that I would never improve and should learn to live with my symptoms. After neurodevelopmental optometric treatment via retinal stimulation and cognitive restructuring using visual puzzles, all cognitive and movement abnormalities were resolved within two years. The bulk of the improvement was in the first few months.
