Thanks to Natasha Dantzig for drawing my attention to this talk from last month's TED Conference in Monterey, California:
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened - as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding - she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.
Taylor describes her experience in terms of unlocking the hidden potential of the right hemisphere. Her talk contains some New Age-type language - there's mention of "the deep inner peace circuitry" of the right hemisphere - but it is nevertheless interesting.
Brain & Behavior
Medicine & Health
Comments (8)
This post reminds me the principle of direct introspection of neural states as neural states rather than the phenomenological feautres of our subjective experience, that somehow boldly, Paul M. Churchland introduced during the 80īs.
As it seems, the principle is not totally misguided after all!
Posted by: Anibal | March 13, 2008 5:26 AM