The underlying assumption has been that each of these regions is designed to recognize and process a particular type of pattern. Particular physical regions have become associated with particular types of patterns, because under normal circumstances that is how the information happens to flow. But when that normal flow of information is disrupted for any reason, another region of the neocortex is able to step in and take over. Plasticity has been widely noted by neurologists, who observed that patients with brain damage from an injury or a stroke can relearn the same skills in another area of
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