A master neurologist's clinical tales—both funny and profound—of the evolution of the brain.
As a sympathetic—and brilliant—brain detective, Harold Klawans treated people with a huge array of troubles, all of which boiled down to one complaint: something was wrong with their brains. From the woman suffering from "painful foot and moving toe syndrome" to the Indiana farmer who contacted a variant of mad cow disease from his herds of livestock, Klawans deduced a great deal from his patients, not only about the immediate causes of their ailments, but about the evolutionary underpinnings of their behavior.
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9780393321845
Media Type: Paperback
Publisher: Norton - W. W. & Company - Inc.
Publication Date: 04-17-2001
Pages: 256
Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.50(d)
About the Author
The late Harold Klawans practiced neurology in Chicago, Illinois. He is the author of Toscanini's Fumble and Why Michael Couldn't Hit, among other books.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface
9
Part 1
The Ascent of Cognitive Function
1.
Defending the Cavewoman: The Window of Opportunity for Learning
15
2.
A Lucy of My Very Own: Locating Handedness and Speech
37
3.
The Gift of Speech: Frank Morrell and the Treatment of Acquired Epileptic Aphasia
56
4.
Manganese Miners: Hard Wiring for Movement
73
5.
I Never Read a Movie I Liked: The Architecture of Reading
88
6.
One of These Things Is Not Like the Others: How Literacy Changes the Brain
110
7.
The Music Goes Round and Round: But It Comes in Where?
121
Part 2
The Brain's Soft Spots: Programmed Cell Death, Prions, and Pain
8.
My Lunch with Oliver: Why That Morning Was Different from All the Other Mornings
143
9.
Two Sets of Brains: Something Old, Something "New"
154
10.
Anticipation: Unto the Third Generation and Beyond
165
11.
The Hermit of Thief River Falls: On First Meeting an Eponym
192
12.
Mad Cows and Mad Markets: Ice-Nine and the Non-Darwinian Evolution of Man and Disease
212
13.
Whatever Happened to Baby Neanderthal? An Afterthought