While you were sleeping

You may have heard of the amazing story of American Terry Wallis – the man who

slept for 19 years. Terry was in a car accident when he was 19 years old and as a

result was in a coma. He then moved into a minimally conscious state, in which he

remained for almost 20 years!

Then one day he woke up. His first question to the nurse was, ‘Who is that?’ He

didn’t recognise his mother and still thought he was 19 years old. When asked who

the US president was he replied that it was Ronald Reagan, because he was still

stuck in 1984, the year of his accident.

About half the people who sustain head injuries and end up in a coma are able to

recover some awareness and cognitive functioning. However, Terry showed very

little improvement in the first year after waking from his coma. Although his parents

took him home every other week and talked to him regularly, he didn’t respond.

Eventually, the doctors pronounced him to be in a persistent vegetative state with

little chance of recovery.

And then Terry proved them all wrong. He eventually came round and started using

one-word utterances like Pepsi and dad to communicate what he wanted. He could

even recognise his daughter, who was 6 weeks old at the time of his crash. His first

words to her were, ‘You are beautiful.’

What happened to Terry’s brain while he was in a coma? Using cutting-edge sci-

entific technology, doctors were able to understand more about Terry’s brain. They

found evidence of new growth in two key areas in his brain. His cerebellum, which

is linked with motor control, was still developing. This new growth allowed him to

regain his strength in his arms and legs. The doctors also found new growth at the

back of his brain, which is linked with conscious awareness. Terry Wallis is walking

evidence of the power of the brain to heal itself even after traumatic head injury.

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

 Feeling good from exercise Exercise is also great for your mental health. It doesn’t just leave you feeling good, but it can also improve feelings of depression and anxiety (see Chapter 9 for more on how to improve your mental health). Plasticity or neuroplasticity is the way the brain can change throughout your life by forming new connections between brain cells, which are called neurons. Most of the change occurs during infancy and childhood when the brain is learning and growing the most. But the brain can also change after an injury that’s dam- aged some part of its functioning. More recently, science has also discovered that the brain is ‘plastic’, even in adulthood. Whenever you’re learning something new, your brain changes to adapt to this new information (see Chapter 7 for how this happens with taxi drivers). Exercise also plays a role in brain cell (neuron) growth in the hippocampus of adults. Schizophrenia is associated with smaller brain volume, particu- lar...
Lire la suite
 Where you are matters A diving instructor was puzzled because his divers kept forgetting objects that they’d found underwater, even when he asked the divers about the objects shortly after they were back on dry land. To find out why this was the case, some psycholo- gists conducted an experiment with divers. The psychologists gave one group of underwater divers a list of words to learn underwater and gave another group a list to learn on land. They then tested the divers’ memories of the word list both on land and underwater. The group that learned the list underwater remembered the list much better in the water but struggled to remember it on land. In contrast, the group who learned the list on land had better memories on land but forgot the list when they were underwater. This story is a great example of how remembering where you were when you learned the information can boost your memory.
Lire la suite
 A lesson from the past: Lobotomising the prefrontal cortex Your knowledge of a lobotomy may be based on Jack Nicolson’s excellent portrayal of a rebellious patient at a mental hospital in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. According to the other patients in the hospital, a lobotomy effectively reduced someone to the same mental state as a shop window mannequin – expressionless and unemotional. The lobotomy procedure consists of cutting the brain connections that go in and out of the prefrontal cortex (see ‘Keeping the brain alert and active’ for informa- tion on the prefrontal cortex). Doctors considered a lobotomy the final step for modifying extreme behaviour when other treatments, such as shock therapy or electrical shock treatment, failed to change a patient’s behaviour. Doctors thought that a lobotomy calmed the patient, reduced aggressive behaviour, and improved the patient’s quality of life. However, scientists now know that this procedure is no longer nec...
Lire la suite