The Anatomy and Physiology of Misteaks

 The Anatomy and Physiology of Misteaks

(June 2023 - November 2024 - January 2025 - January 2026 - May 2026)

The "anatomy and physiology" in the title is a obviously tongue-in-cheek - what I set to do in this posting is to categorize mistakes to see if there are common factors that tie different kinds of mistakes together and whether something can be learned by splitting or by splitting and then lumping. I have recently become particularly interested in mistakes that cause a fall because friends have slipped or fallen and have needed serious rehabilitation or surgery. .

HOWEVER

Something very interesting happened after I completed this entry: I stopped making mistakes. No butterfingers. No slips or falls. No knocking things over. Why? My best guess is that spending time thinking about and categorizing these kinds of mistakes made me super aware of my surroundings and the potential for making mistakes. I think that's key - if we pay attention, we will be less inclined to do something wrong (I was going to write, "stupid" but it's really lack of thought, thoughtless, not stupid). The important thing is not being accurate in categorizing and attributing a certain kind of mistake to parts of the brain  - it's taking time to think deeply about different kinds of mistakes - the added attention to the environment helps prevent mistakes that would otherwise occur.

1. Causes of different kinds of mistakes:

   a. Bad luck - you organize a picnic and it rains (circumstance beyond your control). 

   b. Bad Planning - you don't realize you should have done A before B.

   c. Forgetting - your house is robbed because you forgot to lock the door.

   d. Something not seen or attended to: 

        (1): You spill your drink because you didn't notice the obstacle it hits.

        (2): You are distracted/inattentive or blind and you break a glass because you knock it over or you didn't see the obstacle it hits while you move it.

SUMMARY: All these scenarios are common. We've experienced all of them. But what if we turned each of them into a scenario involving falling (and possibly breaking a bone)?

2. Mistakes causing falls

   a. Bad luck - You walk into someone coming around the corner. You fall. Hard to avoid.

    b. Bad Planning - you don't realize you should have done A before B. For example, you should have turned on the lights and looked on the stairs for toys or other objects before using the stairway in the dark. You fall.

    c. Forgetting - You forget how many stairs you have in your house and, because of miscounting, you fall at the bottom because you thought there was another star but there wasn't.

    d. Movement Problems - you trip because you don't raise your foot high enough to clear a barrier or shine climbing stairs (not uncommon with Parkinson's disease), but I see it occasionally in Step Aerobics (happened to me last month!).

    e. Proprioception/Balance - you lose your balance and fall because of peripheral neuropathy or inner ear problems. 

    f. Something not seen: You trip because it's dark and you don't see a barrier.

SUMMARY: So, where are we? Apart from the Bad Luck category (and maybe the effect of blindness, peripheral neuropathy, or inner ear problems) and possibly the unconscious Basal Ganglia "misbehavior", all these mistakes could be prevented by taking more care with our actions. I see that stairs show up often in places where falls and slips occur. That's clearly a place to be extra careful. Take no chances. Don't make assumptions (e.g., that there is nothing on the stairs for you to trip on).

POSTSCRIPT: If the mistakes could be attributed to physiological or neuropsychological deficits, what would that mean? Two categories that come to mind are planning errors (executive function 1.b; 2.b; Frontal Lobes), memory errors (memory deficits 1.c; Temporal Lobes) and sensory errors (vision, [1.d.1] hearing, proprioception [2.d], maybe olfaction in specific cases; Parietal Lobes or Peripheral Neuropathy). A third kind of error was brought to my attention by my colleague JWA. He reminded me of a phenomenon that is fairly common and that could be confused with a memory problem. In driving, for example, one occasionally follows a common route that isn't appropriate for this particular trip (making a turn that is usual when going to work but in this case you aren't going to work). The basal ganglia may be involved in this kind of mistake. It's hard to avid because it's unconscious. You become aware of the error only after you have committed it.