The most interesting of many cases in neuroscience is that they relatively often lead to knowledge about the brain that had previously escaped. Sometimes a specific disease or symptom brings interesting keys that increase understanding of the human mind.
Many of these cases of neuroscience are impressive by specific symptoms, often dealing with strange and at the same time fascinating phenomena, but what is really valuable is the fact that they show us how the brain works in a way that we didn’t. Know.
- Neurologist Oliver Sacks is considered one of the most important scientific announcers.
- His storytelling can sometimes be like science fiction literature.
- But it is not.
It corresponds to real facts that have contributed, sometimes for tragic purposes, to learn more about the brain. Here are three of these unique cases.
“Any disease introduces a duplicity into life: a ‘something’, with its own needs, demands and limits. “-Olive bags-
This is one of the most impressive cases. The protagonist was a woman over the age of 80 who had a very special experience in 1979, it must be said that she was a healthy person with fully functional mental faculties, although she had hearing problems.
One night, she dreamed of her childhood in Ireland. In her dream, she listened to music from her past, traditional songs and typical dances. When he woke up, the music was still in his head.
She thought the radio was on or someone had put a song, even though there was no one there. I could hear the musical notes perfectly, at a volume strong enough to distract her from other things.
Before an encephalogram could be performed, the music disappeared, after months, into his brain. Everything indicates that this was a temporary lobe problem, associated with a sense of nostalgia.
This case suggests that there are regions of our brain where all past experiences are preserved, as if it were an indestructible file.
Madeleine was a 60-year-old woman with congenital blindness, that is, she had never seen one in her life, she also suffered from cerebral palsy and involuntary hand movements.
Under all these conditions, she was expected to suffer severe cognitive decline, but Madeleine was a very intelligent woman.
The people around her have read her many books, so she was very cultured and passionate about conversation, she confessed that she had never been able to learn braille because, in her own words, her hands were “useless pieces of dough. “abandoned by God. ” He said he didn’t even feel them as part of his body.
However, this woman’s hands were basically normal. They were sensitive, but for some reason, they didn’t move properly.
Oliver Sacks assumed that excessive care for his family may have deprived him of the development of his members, so he initiated a rehabilitation process. In the end, Madeleine is no more or less than a sculptor.
This case of neuroscience refers to a strange disorder called somatognosia, which is characterized by the inability to recognize parts of the body itself.
A young man had a curious experience in the hospital, seeing a leg in his bed that said it did not belong to him, tried to lift her up and throw her out of bed, in doing so she fell out of bed. .
The young man was terrified of the experience. For some reason, he believed his left leg had been amputated and, therefore, the leg he had seen was not his. He felt her away from his body and was afraid. Doctors interrogated him and, not being able to answer where his royal leg was, he fought several times and tried to pull the limb he considered strange.
This is a case of loss of identity with a part of the body that, unfortunately, has not yet been satisfactorily resolved, although there are several such cases, the causes of this problem are still unknown and how we can help these people.