The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery
Sam Kean
Biology, psychology
Sam Kean's books are much of a muchness. His gifts as a writer include a witty, colloquial style; good organization; and a tremendous gift for using entertaining anecdotes to illuminate and explain the larger story. That describes The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons in a nutshell.
The book is cleverly structured. Instead of sticking to a strict chronological sequence, Kean makes each chapter deals with a specific part of the brain. At the same time, he manages to build up his information in a coherent, simpler-to-more-complex sequence--you won't see any of those vexatious "(as we shall explain further in Chapter 37)" interpolations that mar lesser works. The result is both entertaining and genuinely informative.
It doesn't hurt, of course, that there's a genuine if creepy fascination to Weird Brain Facts. To his credit, Kean mostly avoids the temptation to turn the book into a literary freak show; he treats the subjects of his stories with measured compassion. He also does well with character portraits of scientists, materially aided by a wealth of juicy material. Some of it, be it noted, is not for the faint of stomach.
Ultimately, though, it all comes down to Weird Brain Facts. They're weirder than you can possibly imagine. Not the least of The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons's achievements is that it will make you seriously question what you imagine that you know about your "self."
The grand seigneur of this subject is Oliver Sacks, whose best-known work is The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (I'm also partial to Musicophilia).
Can you give an example of a weird brain fact?
ReplyDeleteSome stroke victims become incapable of registering that there's anything to their left.
DeleteIn certain kinds of language aphasias, people lose the ability to verbally distinguish between colors. Or, in other cases, vegetables.
Another kind of brain injury leaves the patient intellectually undamaged, but incapable of making even the simplest decisions ("What color socks will I wear today?").
One poor guy continually experienced the sensation of just, at that very moment, having become conscious for the very first time ever. He filled a diary with entries to that effect. Every time he added a new one, he'd cross out the previous one, since it was obviously wrong.
Quite a number of people experience the unshakable conviction that people around them have been replaced by clones, duplicates, androids, etc. In some cases the feeling can be removed, more or less temporarily, by talking on the phone to the person.
There's much, much more.
Sounds like a list of interesting short stories. I think I'll have to get this book, if only for that reason.
DeleteThe crazy thing is that until the advent of fMRI, researchers really had no means of studying brain function other than finding people with brain injuries and following them around.
ReplyDeletePretty crazy. Phineas Gage, doncherknow
DeleteGage is in there. So is "H.M." (Henry Molaison), who lost the ability to form new memories. It's probably illegal to write this sort of book _without_ them. But there are many, many, many others.
ReplyDeleteJust finished the first chapter. I must say, I’m enjoying it immensely. Thanks for the recommendation
ReplyDeleteThat's good to hear! Kean's other books are written in much the same way; if you like this, there's a good chance you'll like them.
ReplyDelete