Cheryl lost her sense of balance because of damage in the semicircular canals of her inner ear, called the vestibular system.
We maintain our ability to stay upright is via a combination of senses giving information to our brain.
Vision tells us where we are in relation to things.
Proprioception, or touch, gets signals from joints and muscles to say whether we are upright or upside-down. It also lets us know where our limbs are in relation to our centre of mass.
The vestibular system tells us when we move, or when we lose our balance.
When one of these is not working, it also affects the other senses.
Neurologist Paul Bach-y-Rita told Cheryl he could teach her brain new tricks and gave her a hat to wear.
Built into the hat was an accelerometer to register movement. He placed a grid on her tongue with information from the hat sent to the grid. All Cheryl had to do was keep a tiny circle in the middle of the grid to keep her balance.
The result was amazing.
“I had forgotten what it was like to see clearly and what it was like not to stagger,” Cheryl said. “It was like the hand of God coming down and touching me.”
Even Paul was shocked to see Cheryl’s progress. “Within half-an-hour she was standing without assistance.”
Cheryl Schlitz had retrained parts of her brain to take over from those areas damaged by the aminoglycoside, gentamicin.
Miraculous though it was for Cheryl, does the ability to change brain functions have any use for otherwise healthy people?
Apparently, it does.
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