The word myelination is an interesting word. I first read about it a few years ago when my friend Barb gave me a copy of the New York Times Sun. magazine. It had an interesting article about Super-Athletes. They became "super" from myelination that took place in their muscles/brains over years and years of practicing their sport. Basically, deliberate practice = time = myelin = talent/skill.
I thought of this word again when Bob started driving the car. As soon as he went to turn on the turn signals, he actually turned on the windshield wipers! After a bit, he got the hang of it. When I started driving the car, the exact same thing happened to me! The second thing that made me think of the words myelinate/myeline/myelination was when I would go to the wrong side of the car to get in the passenger seat. Also, small things like automatically grabbing for the seat belt on the wrong side. And... when pulling out of parking spaces looking for oncoming traffic for example, turning our head to the right hurt our neck muscles (our muscles on that side of our neck/eyes were very stiff and did not react accordingly.) Why had this all occurred?
My guess is that it's due to myelination. Years ago, our brains were myelinated for driving and getting into a car in the US. We have been driving on the right side of the road, getting in on the left side to be a passenger, turning on the windshield wipers on the "other side", etc. etc. since we were 16 yrs. old! For over 40 + yrs. of deliberate practice the workings of our myelin sheath helped turn us into skillful drivers in the US.
When we're young, myelination gave us super-powers of learning. Not to fret though, after one month of steady driving in NZ, our driving "oopsys" have stopped. The more we drive, the more we "automatically" turn the signals on and not the wipers.
Luckily, when we're actually driving down a highway in NZ, it's easy to stay on the correct side of the road because the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, plus the rental car has a little sticker to remind you to drive left! Luckily, the New Zealanders know many drivers are from abroad. They have cleverly painted big white wide arrows on the correct/left side of the road. Whenever you pull out of a sideroad back on to a major highway that arrow is a good reminder.
On a sad note, my friend Barb no longer saves articles for me from the NYT because she reads her news on a Kindle. My brain is still myelinated to holding, touching and smelling the newsprint. Will I ever remyelinate my brain to a Kindle or an iPad? I'm hoping to do so soon!
