The fact that he had made such a significant recovery suggested that his brain had reorganized itself, providing evidence for neuroplasticity.
The observation that young brains reorganize more effectively than adult brains was first articulated by Kennard in 1936.
And the brain had reorganized by forming new connections between brain cells to compensate for these changes.
For example, he used cotton swabs to show how the brain reorganizes itself after an arm is amputated.
This evidence of the brain's plasticity helped overturn the widely held view that the adult brain cannot reorganize itself in response to its environment.
It may be that the brain is reorganizing itself in order to take fullest advantage of my new abilities.
The brain organizes and reorganizes itself in response to one's experiences, creating new memories prompted by experience, education, or training.
Older children improve after surgery but their brains do not reorganize as much, he said, and adult brains show no reorganization.
The work shows that the brain can reorganize when the children receive intense therapy, he said.
But getting the cables rehooked may not be enough, he said, if the brain has reorganized its sensory maps.