Watching the neurons grow

It is this time of life, my friends, and the neurons are growing. The connections are being made. I remember the story I heard from my math teacher about how complex our brains are. He said “think about 10 by 10 grid of dots and connect each dot with all dots next to it. The maximum distance to get from one dot to another is 10 steps, we have 100 dots, and a really messy picture. Now, the brain has about 100 billion neurons and the maximum distance is 8 neurons.” Now, I am not sure how they did the calculations, but I am pretty sure that some monkeys got killed in the name of Holy Science.

And this is the story I am thinking about when I watch Maya look at her hand while she is connecting those neurons. She is moving a finger and is recognizing that somehow if she thinks about moving her finger the finger moves. Although, it is probably more like “if I hear this pitch of “zzzzzzzzz” my finger moves, and if I hear that type of “zzzzzzzzz” my hand hits me in the face.” But it is absolutely fascinating to watch her becoming inquisitive and sometimes interested. She has been “studying” everything she sees for a while now. Particularly faces. But now she is starting to make those connections with her own body. I mean, imagine you wake up one day and there is this appendage next to you (if any of you experience it on a regular basis you really need to stop drinking gradually, get psych help, or marriage counseling). But then, after you overcome the first wave of nausea, you realize that you can actually control it. Well, not right away, but after some trial and error, you figure out a way to stop it from hitting you in the face and do what you want. Interestingly enough, the previous marriage analogy still works here.