Brain Videos 101

I’ve been recently feeling that I need some very basic education on the regions of the brain. Luckily I bumped into two animated lectures/videos that were, for me, particularly instructive.

I first watched the Sentis Brain Animation video, which lays out the basics of brain geography – which areas are used for what activities. (I’m sure that there’s a better word for this, but this is how I thought about it.) You can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5_vT_mnKomY

 

The RSA Animate video of Ian Gilchrist’s lecture entitled “The Divided Brain” is a bit longer, British, wittier and more focused on the differences between the right and left hemispheres: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFs9WO2B8uI&feature=related

I also liked “The Divided Brain” because it reminded me of Jill Bolte-Taylor’s seminal book entitled “My Stroke of Insight” in its discussion of the differences between the two hemispheres. Ms. Bolte-Taylor’s description of her struggle to recover from a massive left-hemisphere stroke while losing nearly all those left-side brain functions gives me the willies. It you haven’t read her book or hear her talk, watch this presentation - http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html - and then go read her book.

 

If none of these tickle your curiosity bone, you’re reading the wrong blog.

Can You Read? Post-Operation Reactions - 2010

Once I was home and friends started to reach out to me, it was clear that most people expected the worst—that I couldn’t talk, that my IQ had sunk to new lows, or that I was handicapped in some strange and terrifying way. I don’t blame them for those concerns. 

An old boss took me out to lunch.  One of her first questions was “can you read?” I knew that I could read, but she didn’t know I could read.  Given the horrific experiences of many brain tumor victims, and the memoirs of brain tumor survivors like Jill Bolte-Taylor, she had good reason to worry about my ability to function in normal society.  

Here’s a great example, a note from a friend who’d heard about my tumor:

“I'm glad to see you can type!! My experience of brain surgery is largely confined to the movies where the patient awakes to a circle of concerned faces all waiting to see if he suddenly speaks in Urdu or thinks a carrot smells like a sausage and so on. But it seems you have woken up in fully functioning order!!!

Actually, I do have a brain operation story. My friend had two seven hour brain operations after suffering severe head injuries in a car accident. (He made a full recovery.) But when he awoke from the surgeries he had to spend several days in a delirium while the brain tissue healed. During this time he spoke only Spanish, a language he learned in South America while he was at school until the age of four and which he had completely forgotten in the intervening 35 years! Or so he thought.

The Brain, it really is the last frontier.”

Gabby Giffords - My New Heroine

If you haven’t seen the recent Diane Sawyer interview with Representative Gabby Giffords, I highly recommend it. Here’s a link: http://abcnews.go.com/US/gabby_giffords/humor-determination-key-congresswoman-gabrielle-giffords-recovery/story?id=14944407#.TsLQP2HRaSq

 

Why do I recommend it? Because this program is the antithesis of a fake “reality” show. In contrast to fake drama, this is about the real drama and challenge and determination she exudes while trying to recover from the reality of being shot in the head.

If yesterday’s blog was all about “Fear of the Unknown” (see 11/14/11 blog posting), Gabby’s real-life situation is all about the “fear of the known”. 

Although in her case, “fear” is the absolute wrong word to use…because she and her husband Mark seem absolutely fearless to me.

To be clear, the program does not sugar-coat the extent of her injuries or the challenges of her recovery.  The early videos of Gabby learning how to “sigh” or “kiss”, let alone talk, speak volumes. 

The videos of rehab sessions with her therapist are especially poignant. When I saw her searching internally for a very simple word – “chair” – and could only say “spoon” instead, I physically winced.

Yet I don’t believe that she will be the same “Gabby” when she reaches her full recovery potential.

What do I mean, “Full recovery potential”? I mean when she maximizes the uses of the mental and physical powers she now has. Much like Jill Bolte-Taylor describes in her book, A Stroke of Insight, brain injuries of this magnitude change you…whether you like it or not, whether you rehab assiduously or hot, whether your doctor is great or not.

I found Ms. Sawyer’s interview, and Gabby and her husband’s determination, to be ridiculously inspirational...and I hope you do, too.