Author: Kean, Sam
Call Number: 617.48023 K24T 2014
Book Description from amazon.com:
Early studies of the functions of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike-strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, lobotomies, horrendous accidents-and see how the victim coped. In many cases survival was miraculous, and observers could only marvel at the transformations that took place afterward, altering victims' personalities. An injury to one section can leave a person unable to recognize loved ones; some brain trauma can even make you a pathological gambler, pedophile, or liar. But a few scientists realized that these injuries were an opportunity for studying brain function at its extremes. With lucid explanations and incisive wit, Sam Kean explains the brain's secret passageways while recounting forgotten stories of common people whose struggles, resiliency, and deep humanity made modern neuroscience possible.
My Read:
As I close this book one of the cases stated in it stays with me. It's listed in the chapter named "Wiring and Rewiring." Pedro, father of Doctor Bach-y-Rita, suffered a massive stroke in 1959 and was left half paralyzed and speechless. George, Bach-y-Rita's brother who was also a doctor, refused to send their father to a nursing home suggested by the patient's doctors. George designed his own rehab regimen. George made Pedro crawl like an infant at first, learning how to move each limb again, before gradually working him up to his feet. Then he made Pedro do household chores such as sweeping the porch and scrubbing pots and pans. Pedro struggled and appeared to make little progress, but the repetitive motions eventually retrained his brain. Not only did he regain the ability to talk and walk, he also resumed his teaching job, remarried, and started hiking again. His brain proved plastic enough to reroute the cues for walking and talking around the ravaged tissue. Instead of routing signals from A to B, it now routed them from A to C and then C to B.--page 90
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