Calling all Students Interested in Brain Function and Dysfunction

One of the classes offered during the spring semester is Brain Function & Dysfunction. As we were working out the timing of the class -- don't worry, it doesn't conflict with internship seminars! -- I heard an interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks on National Public Radio. You can click on the title of this blog to get to the NPR website so that you can read more and hear the interview.

Dr. Sacks is a neurologist who has written numerous books about some of the most unusual cases of neurological disorders that he has seen in his practice. You may have seen or heard of the movies Awakenings (with Robin Williams) and At First Sight (with Val Kilmer); both of these were based on real cases that were originally published by Dr. Sacks.

His books, written for a general audience and very readable, include The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. I've read both and highly recommend them. Some of the cases that I found most interesting included the title case from the first book -- the patient really did think his wife was a hat! Other cases involved a woman who couldn't feel her body in space so she had trouble controlling where to place her arms and legs as she tried to navigate her everyday life; a painter who lost all ability to see color after a head trauma; and a man who lost the ability to form new long-term memories so that he was permanently "stuck" in the 1940's. He also wrote a book called Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain that I have not yet read.

Dr. Sacks now has a new book The Mind's Eye in which he talks about his own struggles with a rare eye tumor and his resultant vision loss. The book includes case studies of other people whose neurological problems resulted in vision-related problems such as an inability to remember faces and visual distortions.

If you are interested in how the brain works and what happens when brain function goes awry, you might want to check out one of these books over winter break or at least listen to the radio interview that is linked to this blog.

And, check the course schedule list when it comes out -- Brain Function & Dysfunction will be there.