Before you read my little post below, check out this article (look for the special science cameo from a future Presidential contender) - How Removing Half of Someone's Brain Can improve Their Life
This is a great review/preview for Psych II and Psych I students respectively. This is one of the first mainstream articles in a while to get Phineas Gage right. It does a beautiful job of laying out how brain parts work together in specialized ways, but also how plasticity trumps everything.
The part I can't get over is the courage of the patient, parents, doctors and surgeons to actually make the call that removing half of a brain will in fact make a patient BETTER. We know from other studies (Gazzaniga and Sperry, and Daniel Kish for instance) how flexible and resilient one's brain can be. But, being willing to make that decision to go through with it is pretty impressive.
Finally, can you believe that 552 hemispherectomies occurred between 2000-2009?! Wow.
This is just such a cool article.
This is a great review/preview for Psych II and Psych I students respectively. This is one of the first mainstream articles in a while to get Phineas Gage right. It does a beautiful job of laying out how brain parts work together in specialized ways, but also how plasticity trumps everything.
The part I can't get over is the courage of the patient, parents, doctors and surgeons to actually make the call that removing half of a brain will in fact make a patient BETTER. We know from other studies (Gazzaniga and Sperry, and Daniel Kish for instance) how flexible and resilient one's brain can be. But, being willing to make that decision to go through with it is pretty impressive.
Finally, can you believe that 552 hemispherectomies occurred between 2000-2009?! Wow.
This is just such a cool article.
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