

A Tour of my Brain - kyro
http://dustincurtis.com/a-tour-of-my-brain.html

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markbao
> _For a long time, I thought my calling was in medicine. Sometimes, when I
> read about interesting new research in neroscience, I wonder what would have
> happened if I had continued studying medicine. Who knows?_

I feel exactly the same way. Since taking an introductory biology class in
school, I've always been extremely interested in biology and biotech in
general. The fact that the possibilities in changing, improving, and modifying
the human body, as well as other biology and even non-animate things (which
ventures a bit into chemistry/physics) is very appealing.

I frequently read Wikipedia (probably a bit too much) on biology, specifically
on things like medicine and psychoactives.

The fact that the human body can be infinitely modified is likewise infinitely
amazing to me. Biotech and bioscience would certainly be my #2 after
entrepreneurship, if I had another life.

Fantastic article and presentation, btw.

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kyro
What's fascinating is that these two, seemingly independent, brain lobes work
in such beautiful unison. The up/down regulation of neurotransmitters and
agonist sensitivity to compensate for and mask illnesses is wildly
interesting.

Also, I think I would've enjoyed learning, about biology specifically, a lot
more had the subject matter been designed so awesomely. Dull presentation
(text, structure, etc) can really have an effect on the way you view the
content.

~~~
unalone
Dustin's got one of the best-looking web sites out there, bar none. I love the
effort he spends on each of his articles.

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paulsilver
A couple of points for accuracy - the corpus callosum isn't the only path of
communication between the two hemispheres of the brain. There are at least two
minor pathways, unfortunately I can't remember either of their names well
enough to find them and my neurology books are at home. The corpus callosum is
by far the biggest pathway of communication, but studies where it has been
split have shown that the minor pathways are also used for some communication.

And... while the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the
body and vice versa, the eyes are a bit different. When you show something to
one eye, the signals from the left side of the eye's visual field are sent to
the right side of the brain, and the right side of the visual field _of the
same eye_ are sent to the left hemisphere.

This makes studying people who've had the CC severed very awkward as you have
to present images to one side of their visual field and then remove it before
their eyes have moved to see the image with the whole field. In turn, this
affects which images you can show as they have to be simple enough to be
understood quickly enough that you only have to show them for a very limited
time. Again, this is something I'd need to look up in my old university notes
or textbooks but I have a feeling it was something like 22ms - it could well
have been a bit longer, but it's a very, very short time.

I too love neurology and studied Experimental Psychology at university, now a
bundle of years ago, and we covered a chunk of neurology in that. One of my
lecturers, Alan Parkin, had studied people with split brain and some with
alien hand syndrome. His books are well worth a read if you're interested in
neuropsychology, but you might find them a bit heavy if you haven't already
read around psychology, they're made for 2nd-3rd year undergraduate students.

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raquo
How is this related to Erlang??

~~~
DanielBMarkham
I know that's just what I was wondering

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burke
I wish it was standard practice to give patients access to this kind of
awesome stuff.

~~~
bradgessler
You can ask for these records and they should give them to you.

~~~
sachinag
They may charge you, and it may take a while, but they are legally obligated
(in the States) to provide a patient with her own medical records.

~~~
gstar
In Australia, whenever I had a CT scan I was provided with a CD-ROM full of
data in some kind of medical format. In my experience, patients usually
transport imaging data/films between the imaging bureau and the medical
practitioners themselves.

I always planned to try to read it, but I never did (it certainly wasn't a
bunch of bitmaps!)

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nrr
I hate being a pedantic dick about these kinds of things, but Fourier is
spelled with a capital F because it's a proper noun. (It's the name of a
badass French mathematician. Lagrange is another example, as is Cauchy.)

Aside from that, though, I actually learned a tiny bit of neuroanatomy and a
little bit about neuropathology, which is always a plus.

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burke
Mmmm, NeoTech. One of the biggest reasons I wish @font-face was better
supported.

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adrianwaj
I've always thought that even with the most idiotic person, if their brain
could be plugged into a computer, it'd be beyond that of any supercomputer.
Anyone wish to elaborate?

~~~
Raphael
More creative, but less reliable.

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olliesaunders
Ow! White on black burns my retinas. (No, I'm not Mort from Family Guy).

