Better late than never!

When studying the visual analyzer in pathophysiology during my second year of medical school, we were told that, based on clinical observations, blind individuals often develop compensatory skills and sensitivities that help them adapt to the absence of sight:

-Their hearing becomes more refined – they can perceive subtle details in sounds, echoes, and vibrations.

-Their tactile sensitivity increases – helping them read Braille, recognize textures, or detect objects precisely through touch.

-Their auditory and spatial memory is enhanced.

-Their spatial perception through sound and vibrations improves.

-They develop a deeper connection with their remaining senses – smell and taste may become more pronounced, offering them a more detailed perception of their environment.

At the time, I asked my group’s assistant a simple question:

– How could we "awaken" those neurons to other stimuli without inducing blindness, if in such cases, the elevation of other senses occurs "naturally" after the impairment of the visual analyzer?

I received a curt response:

– Miss, that is a meaningless question. Such a thing is not possible!

Yet, recent studies on monkeys show that the primary visual cortex actually processes auditory information. Moreover, the auditory cortex integrates signals related to movement and proprioception.

For individuals with partial or total visual impairments, this process is entirely logical: the visual cortex takes on other functions and begins processing sounds or somatosensory information instead of images.

Each time I gathered another fragment of an answer to that question, I smiled inwardly with humility!

Then, last week, while reading the article in Nature Communications, published by a Romanian-American research team, my heart truly leapt with joy—just as Creangă( (a romanian writer ) would say.

🔗 Nature Communications Article

"Brain regions involved in the formation of smell also play a role in hearing and, implicitly, in the brain’s adaptation to environmental changes.

Our results indicate that feedback axons between the piriform cortex and the olfactory bulb transmit information about the identity of stimuli and their significance depending on the context, adjusting rapidly to environmental changes,"* the study’s authors explain.

Behavioral analysis in the experiment revealed that neurons in the piriform cortex (a brain region involved in processing smells) have the capacity to adapt within seconds to changes in stimuli, responding to sounds and allowing for behavioral adaptation.

Using two-photon imaging (a high-powered laser) and a scanner, researchers observed that synaptic boutons reorganize when sound becomes dominant in the environment—at the expense of olfactory perception.

These fascinating discoveries completely dismantle the Aristotelian dogma that different centers in the brain process only specific types of information: the visual cortex for images, the auditory cortex for sounds, the olfactory cortex for smells, the somatosensory cortex or cerebellum for proprioceptive information related to movement or balance.

Although I had pieced together my answer over the past 30 years:

– Miss, any brain does this by adapting to its environment, not just the brains of visually impaired individuals.

…I still wasn’t fully satisfied and formulated two more questions:

1-How does an organism react to a sudden or gradual change in environmental rules?

If it demonstrates dynamic synaptic reorganization in response to new data and stimuli, does this mean that this reconfiguration not only alters mental representation, but that mental representation itself can have a biochemical impact on synapses?

2-Could the latest neuroscience research be showing us that we already have everything we need, within reach, for perceptual and cognitive-behavioral restructuring?

We have the tissue support—we just need to work with it intelligently.

In 2025, we now know with certainty: the brain consists of modules that can process almost anything and can flexibly reorient based on the informational inputs it receives (and these informational inputs can often be modulated).

What an incredible biological intelligence!

We must return to fundamentals again and again, discovering how a healthy brain functions and learning how to use it!

From my perspective, searching for fundamentals when working with people is not optional—it is the essence.

Training a plurisystemic perspective is not merely beneficial—it is vital.

One of modern medicine’s biggest flaws is precisely the omission of fundamentals.

It focuses on the clinical branch—how diseases arise, how to quickly suppress symptoms, how to get people back to work—but we have neglected to study what a healthy organism is, what its exact capabilities and functional limits are (which would directly, and undeniably, explain how diseases develop).

Reading this article gave me renewed motivation to continue what I already do—with profound gratitude for biology.

That is why I warmly invite you to open, in an organized, structured, and consistent way, a challenge that is currently unfolding in your life—to bring it into a state of inner balance and love through a clear process that I personalize and carefully track, with respect and appreciation for each client.

💬 I offer you a free 20-minute mini-session so you can experience firsthand if my approach resonates with you.

Feel free to use the contact form with confidence!

https://www.anamariasanduta.com/contact