The Vee – Average Brain Development – figure 1
Deficient Brain Development —
Deficient Brain Development — figure 2 Enriched Brain Development —Enriched Brain Development — figure 3 Fish
Fish Light, Dark,Light, Dark, (Color) (Color) Medulla
Medulla
& Cord
& Cord Amphibian
Amphibian
Pons Pons
Patterns, Patterns, Outlines Outlines
Pattern-Within-Pattern, Pattern, Details Details
Vision in 3 Vision in 3 Dimensions Dimensions
Reptile Reptile
Midbrain Midbrain Mammal
Mammal
Cortex Cortex
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Notes for the Vee Diagrams Notes for the Vee Diagrams
Many different programs and disciplines have a similar model for human development. This model looks like a "V" or, if three-dimensional, an upside-down pyramid. The narrow bottom region represents the range of our competencies near the beginnings of our life, the widening of the "V" at higher levels represents the ever widening competencies which come within our range as we grow and develop. Progress "up the Vee" appears to go in distinctive "stages" of
development. To progress from one stage to the next, requires a great deal of experience at the one stage before that experience starts to encode into the next level of functioning. How well we function at one level depends upon how well we've experienced and developed in the previous level.
In the example shown, we can map the development of vision in the human infant. By the time the baby is born - by the time we reach the bottom of the "Vee" — the baby has had
considerable experience with changes in light and dark and color, right in the womb, because of the translucency of the womb and stomach wall. Although he has some "hard wiring" which lets him imprint on the mother's face, by the time he's born what he mainly has going with his vision is: changes in light and dark and color. The part of his brain which is mainly active is the very base of his brain, the medulla oblongata and the spinal cord, whose visual experience is, of
course, changes in light and dark and color. As it happens, these parts of the nervous system correspond to the brain of a fish whose experience, as it happens, is mainly ... changes in light and dark and color. Scientists hold that an early part of our pre-human ancestry, very far back when, was in fact, fish-like; those who study the fetus in the womb observe that the developing fetus grows through phases where he is first fish-like, even to having gills; then he becomes amphibian-like, then reptile-like and finally mammalian and ape-like and human. These features are clearly visible in the evolution of the fetus, whether or not that means anything in terms of evolution of our species as this phenomenon seems to strongly suggest.
Once born, the baby needs — and usually gets — much experience in that bottom segment of the "Vee," seeing light and dark and color changes and motion. He needs a lot of that experience before he reaches the point where that encodes for him to the point that he sees differences in light, dark and color within the same visual field — i.e., he is beginning to see patterns and outlines. He's attracted to plaid blankets, cut-out designs and the like (and, beyond the visual, he is also experiencing patterns in other senses, beginning to learn the spoken word). Now the pons becomes active. He is responding to the kinds of stimuli that an amphibian responds to. If, due to injury or to lack of opportunity for experience, he hasn't got a lot of experience of light and dark and color encoded, he doesn't see patterns all that well and in fact will have his seeing functions impaired all the way up the rest of the "Vee" accordingly. (See, for example, figure 2 — the shriveled "Vee.") Or, if he's had a lot of stimulus and experience in seeing light and color changes, he will probably be BETTER than most other people at making sense of patterns, and indeed have a greater degree of visual competence at each higher level up the "Vee." (See figure 3, where a much wider range of competencies is incorporated in each higher level of the "Vee.")
With enough experience at amphibian pons level pattern-recognition, he eventually begins to encode that to see outlines within outlines, patterns within patterns, DETAILS. His midbrain has become active; he is responding to much the same kinds of stimuli as reptiles generally respond to. And with enough experience with details, his cortex begins to distinguish between the details seen by one eye and those seen by the other, which gives him the sense of space in
three dimensions. I would say "mammal-like," but only some mammals have both eyes to the front to track and to prey on other creatures. Carnivores. Mammals who are prey have their eyes to the sides to see danger coming. Their visual fields don't overlap enough to give them the experience of three dimensions.
Therapy Model Therapy Model
There are many therapeutic models and disciplines who have this "Vee" model of stages of human development. Lack of developmental opportunity, or some injury, setting in at some point depresses the "Vee" and degrades competency at all levels above that point of deprivation or injury. Therapy consists largely of feeding stimuli or other treatment to the deepest-down point of damage found, then rebuilding each successively higher layer on that strengthened foundation. The therapies would be much more effective if it were generally realized that it's not so much the stimulus, not so much the things done TO someone at each of these levels to heal and bring up their competencies, as it is finding ways to enrich FEEDBACK from one's own activities at each of these levels.
Enrichment Model Enrichment Model
Most therapy programs have looked only at pathologies, looked only at what goes wrong and how to patch up wrong toward something approaching O.K. A few look beyond this, look beyond o.k., seeing that enriching the experience of lower levels allows for greater-than-usual ranges of competence in levels higher up. "Normal" and "average" are very different things.
Normal implies wholeness and wellness; "average," certainly in our culture, means some pretty damaged goods among us, unfortunately.
Example in an Early Stage of Visual Development Example in an Early Stage of Visual Development
Dr. Wenger invented the use of flashing multicolored Christmas tree lights near the newborn's crib, for a few minutes at a time, as a way to develop extraordinarily capable vision in a few children including one of his own daughters. However, today he much prefers an even better arrangement. Use pressure-pads as controls switching on and off different colored lights shining onto the newborn's crib. Embed these pads in the bedding, so the newborn infant's own
movements switch these various colored lights on and off. (There should also be a single distinctive light which, when lit, signifies that this motion system is active, and when it is not lit the motion system is inactive.) This will be even more productive of great vision in the child than were those Christmas tree lights, because instead of merely being stimulus, the pressure-pad-controlled lights give the infant feedback on his own activities.
In your mind, even more readily than in your environment, you can arrange to give yourself feedback stimulus relating to each of the indicated stages of development, not only visually but through recapitulating some of what it's like to be a baby at various stages of development, and what it's like to (re?)visit various parts of our bio-evolutionary experience as a species. This can repair some of the missing gaps. This can enrich. This can strengthen the infrastructure of your mind and brain toward better support of your higher functions and intelligence.
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Footnotes Footnotes
The standard medical and professional term for the phenomenon of the fetus and child growing developmentally through stages which correspond to the earlier forms of our species is
"ontology recapitulates phylogeny." That's a forty-cent way of saying that the development of the individual (ontology) repeats the gist or pattern of development of our species through past stages of evolution.
The theory that the neurological development of the human individual literally demonstrates the successive stages of evolutionary development, and might be addressed therapeutically or enhanced as cited above, was first proposed by Dr. Temple Fey while at Temple University. He is better known for his having invented cryogenic surgery. The theory was further developed and implemented by Dr. Glenn Doman, who founded The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Philadelphia. Doman and the Institutes remain controversial to this day, having apparently been successfully treating symptoms of brain damage since the 1950s, which for long decades no one else believed could be done. The Institutes are located at 8801 Stenton Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19118.
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