That's an interesting idea, but I wasn't actually suggesting Parkinsonism in the character (that particular mention was just a reference to a technology that's already in use - it provides electrical stimulation to specific areas of the brain to alleviate certain Parkinson's symptoms). I was using that technology as an example of an earlier version of neural stimulation that could potentially have been developed and refined to create the device on the character's ocular nerve (as this story is set in the future, albeit one with a slightly different history than that of our current world).
I'm not sure if it's possible that increased electrical stimulation would cause demyelination. All the research I've looked at has suggested the opposite, in fact - that electrical activity within the brain is the main cause of myelination, and that brains with low levels of activity have less myelin sheathing. Because of this, it seemed to me that the stimulation that this subject's brain has been subjected to would have led to greater myelination than that present in non-stimulated subjects. As increased myelination allows neural electrical impulses to propagate by saltation, the speed of electrical impulse transfers within the brain rises. This was the side-effect I was suggesting.
Also, strong myelination provides increased chances of regrowth in severed nerve fibers. While this applies mainly to peripheral axons, not those in the central nervous system, it does play nicely into the 'failed deletions' idea, suggesting yet another avenue for recovery of supposedly 'lost' neural connections.
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Date: 2007-11-06 09:28 pm (UTC)I'm not sure if it's possible that increased electrical stimulation would cause demyelination. All the research I've looked at has suggested the opposite, in fact - that electrical activity within the brain is the main cause of myelination, and that brains with low levels of activity have less myelin sheathing. Because of this, it seemed to me that the stimulation that this subject's brain has been subjected to would have led to greater myelination than that present in non-stimulated subjects. As increased myelination allows neural electrical impulses to propagate by saltation, the speed of electrical impulse transfers within the brain rises. This was the side-effect I was suggesting.
Also, strong myelination provides increased chances of regrowth in severed nerve fibers. While this applies mainly to peripheral axons, not those in the central nervous system, it does play nicely into the 'failed deletions' idea, suggesting yet another avenue for recovery of supposedly 'lost' neural connections.