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- The mysterious relationship between the development of the brain and the big toe
The mysterious relationship between the development of the brain and the big toe
Experiments show that children with severe brain damage may recover some capabilities through “crawling exercises,” using their big toes – another indication of the profound connections between the body and the brain.
The Sakura Sakuranbo Childcare Institute in Furuya, North of Tokyo, has developed a unique “crawling exercise” program. Yes, crawling, as in the way infants move around before they learn to walk. The thing is that when healthy children lie down on their stomachs, they naturally put their big toes against the floor and then crawl by kicking themselves forward with their big toes. However, children with some kind of brain damage don’t do that. Apparently, their big toes don’t move. Similarly, when normal children turn over in their sleep, they cross their legs and kick off with their big toes. Brain-damaged children can’t do that either.
Now, some of you may be wondering if you yourself can do that. Just pull off your socks and get down on all fours and try! In fact, recently there are adults too who can’t put their big toes properly against the floor.
Actually, the big toe may have played an important role in the evolution of humans. Kimiko Saito, the director of the institute, believes it did. The act of moving forward using powerful kicks with the big toes appears to have had a major impact on the development of the brain, which in turn is what made us human. Incidentally, the movements made when crawling on the floor closely resemble those of amphibians climbing up on land from the water.
At the Sakura Sakuranbo Childcare Institute, they let children who can’t crawl (due to severe brain damage) play around barefoot on the floor and make them move so that they start using their big toes in a natural way, Before long, these children too are able to put their toes against the floor and eventually learn to crawl. Soon they are playing with blocks and in the sandbox, which was previously unthinkable, and even begin to mouth words.
According to one study, infants who have not yet learnt to stand up crawl by moving their limbs in the order left leg, left hand, right leg, right hand. But when they have started to walk, this order changes into left leg, right hand, right leg, left hand. The first pattern is typical of reptiles, amphibians and most mammals, while the second is characteristic of the primates, including humans. (Once again, if you are wondering how you yourself would do, just get down on the floor and start crawling to find out!)
Somehow part of the development of the brain seems intimately connected with the movement of the legs. The reason why disabled children don’t grow up normally is believed to be due to some problem inside the brain. By deliberately performing “crawl training,” it is as if a process is set in motion inside the brain that repeats “the course of evolution” all over, as it were, and as a result, the damages are rehabilitated… or is that too audacious an hypothesis?
Adults and children today walk barefoot much less often than people used to do. At the same time, the staff at childcare centers tell shocking stories of how the physical strength of children is deteriorating. Maybe modern man is forgetting something important?
