Neural rerouting around injuries is fast

[mattbell]

I injured my hand slightly a couple of days ago.  The injury is such that I want to avoid using a couple of the fingers in my right hand for a few days.  I was amazed that my brain quickly and subconsciously came up with new ways of picking up and moving objects, getting dressed,  carrying out other daily tasks, and even typing, a skill that ordinarily takes a very long time to learn and one for which I have subconsciously developed a nonstandard approach I cannot verbally describe.  Accidental stresses on the hand have been very rare. 

I want to harness this sort of rapid rerouting for other types of physical motion learning such as improving posture or riding a snowboard properly. 

Comments

[integreillumine.livejournal.com]

Mm, fine motor adjustments can be very different from/faster than gross... but if you pick anything up, let me know!

[uke.livejournal.com]

To make it fast, the consequences of messing up probably need to be bad, one way or another. Also immediate.

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

True, true. Also, the implementation would have to vary depending on how the body anticipates potential pain. If it plans around pain by looking at what muscles would be needed to do a motion in various ways, and then picks ways that don't conflict with known pained muscles, then this technique would have to cause pain to a specific muscle whenever it is moved in order to work.

[uke.livejournal.com]

You just gave me an idea: hook up a spaced repetition system to an electric shock dingus. Shock intensity could be based on learned difficulty of the item in question. I bet it would work well, and I'm not kidding!

[nasu-dengaku.livejournal.com]

As in... you'd get a bigger shock for missing an easier question?

If stress from shock avoidance gets too high, you could end up suppressing memory.

Clearly it can work wonders...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC2XJXd8NV0

[uke.livejournal.com]

Actually I was thinking that you get a worse shock when you miss a harder card. That way you train yourself to avoid shocks by expending more effort in learning the hard ones.