Wendy,
I have always thought there was something about personality or at least
development involved, but I have nothing to prove it.I know this: the
dopamine pathways of the brain go through critical developmental periods
right after birth, and again at the end of the second year of life continuing
into the next two-four years. When this is occuring, the synapses are
rapidly forming and connecting up the sympathetic nervous system. In the
first year psychologically the developmental job is to internalize regulation
of affects in the soothing,-stimulating interaction with the mother. In the
second year the job is for the child to learn to beginnings of inihbition,
and impusle control. If these psychological developments are encoded in the
neurons at critical dopamine developmental times along with parts of the
control of the body, it seems reasonable to assume they connect up. The
nigro-striatal part of the dopamine pathway is critical in the second year.
One final note is that I have informally polled a number of early onset
PD patients admittedly not a very large sample. Allmost without
exception--maybe one or two out of about 8 or 10, had something strange in
the first year--illness or nutritional deficiencies. I'm hoping to do some
more formal research.
The last thing is that because of this I firmly believe that with
motivation, concentration, and focus, we can relearn--i.e. retrain our body
memory in many of the functions that we have lost. It takes a little time
and effort but It can happen. What is important is to fight that deadly
passivity, and really keep the mind going all the time. I force myself to
engage in new kinds of learning all the time--especially right brain type
stuff.
While I'm on line to you I want to thank you for your great
postings-=-interpsyche forum, medline articles, etc. It's a great service.
Claudia Elliott , Chicago, Ill.
