story telling

Aside from the beautiful and charismatic style which makes the procession through The Diving Bell and the Butterfly absolutely enthralling, complete appreciation of this book requires an acknowledgement of the implausible efforts of its creator. It is rare that a book can be inspiring based not only on the content of the writing but also on the process of its creation. Jean-Dominique Bauby does not explicitly give details about his condition, nor about how he went about writing this book. This seems to be the main theme of the book: it is not why, but how. He does not want the reader to know much about his accident or the painstaking method of communication he has been forced to resort to, but

In a masterfully weaved tale, Jonah Lehrer discusses a variety of artistic masterpieces and the underlying neurobiology. Lehrer tells this story in hope that one day we will have what he dubs a 4th culture, where scientists and artists can talk and really understand and appreciate each other. In this short but sweet book, Lehrer discusses the artistic advances of eight different artists. Though they may have been viewed as eccentric or crazy in their own times, Lehrer discusses how their artistic insight pinpointed neurobiological facts that have later been uncovered.

 

While accounts of both phantom limb awareness and pain have been reported for over 500 years (1), only in recent decades have patients reporting such sensations of missing limbs not been classified as pathological. In fact, recent studies report 60-80% incidence rate of PLP, whereas in the middle of the 20th century, reported PLP cases were as low as 4% (3). Rather, modernized technologies and advancements in the field of neuroscience have revealed evidence indicating that the mechanisms involved in such sensations are actually responsive and adaptive (2), perhaps accounting for the increased rate

Aspirations, successes, challenges (1994-2005), and update

Interesting discussion in the emergence group this past week, based on a presentation/paper by Mikio Agaki to be continued next week.  Here's my my read of what Mikio is about, why it matters to all of us, where I am currently worried he may get into trouble, and what the implications are for the future.

Recent conversations in the emergence working group on "unintended consequences" have reminded me of a book on the problem of "unconceived alternatives", and those in turn relate in interesting ways to issues in philosophy of science, in neurobiology, in human social organization, and, of course, in life in general. Let me see if I can explain.

 

Really. I recently finished reading Uncle Tom's Cabin, and was struck that by the juxtaposition of the novels many Romantic gestures, and Stowe's continued insistence of the realness of her work, particularly in the key. Certainly we see enough examples today of entertainments that insist on their own reality, so the move wasn't all together foreign to me. Once, I spent some time with the idea of "reality" in the media, I found that the 19th century novel and our modern fascination with reality may have a similar function - helping us to create meaning in our lives and dispel existentialism.

For a variety of reasons, I've been thinking a lot about depression recently, not only about peoples' experiences with it (including my own) but also about how to make sense of it from a neurobiological perspective. A variety of conversations, including a recent one in a senior seminar course in neural and behavioral science, has significantly added to my thoughts, helped to crystallize some of them, and suggested some intriguing directions for further exploration.