![]() ![]() Both of his hippocampi, the parts of the brain that allow us to form new long-term memories for facts and events in our lives, were lost. But in 1981, a motorcycle accident left him without two critical brain structures. The man who could not imagine the future: Kent Cochrane (KC), pictured below, was a ’70s wild child, playing in a rock band, getting into bar fights, and zooming around Toronto on his motorcycle. ![]() ![]() Here are five patients, from Kean’s book, whose stories transformed neuroscience:ġ. “But then I looked into it, and I realized that, not only is it true, it actually reveals some important things about how the brain works.” “As I was reading these I said, ‘That’s baloney! There’s no way that can possibly be true,'” Kean remembers, referring to one particularly surprising case in which a woman’s brain injury left her unable to recognize and distinguish between different kinds of animals. Kean recounts some of their unforgettable stories on the latest episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast. In his new book, The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean tells the story of a handful of patients whose unique brains-rendered that way by surgical procedures, rare diseases, and unfortunate, freak accidents-taught us much more than any set of colorful scans. But there’s another approach to understanding how our minds work. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |