I’m going to take a break from trying to pick a philosophy of life. If I’ve waited this long, it doesn’t really matter if I take a little longer. I suppose that I actually have one by default, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is. Here is a partial list of some, perhaps […]
How does one make a decision to go to the hospital emergency room when one has an acute change in mental status? This is actually a two-part question, or actually a question for two different classes of individuals; for the person with the change in mental status and for the friend or family who notices […]
My blog yesterday featured Jonah Lehrer’s analysis of Cézanne’s struggle to represent the world as he saw it, likening it to the very process of vision. Today I would like to look into the process of seeing by autistic individuals. Many autistic individuals are creative and express themselves in the arts. [1] In this short […]
In his book Proust was a Neuroscientist, Jonah Lehrer illustrates how the revelations of the arts and literature give us insight into the human mind with as much, and possibly more clarity than does the work of neuroscientists. The chapter about Paul Cézanne caught my interest. Cézanne’s vision The impressionists, whose work was contemporaneous with […]
Neuroanatomy Those of you who follow my blog know that my interest in the brain stems from my older brother who is autistic, profoundly retarded and has never uttered a word in his life. I had the good fortune to be able to study neuroanatomy with a colleague, Dr. Andrew Lautin, and participate in the […]
Baby William is doing very well. He is a lot different from when he was a week old. Back then, I couldn’t even get his attention. I suppose, since he was busy getting used to living in an air environment, that’s understandable. Plus the fact that his gaze, focused at about 8-10 inches according to […]
I’m here outside Chicago with my grandchildren finishing up my 2nd full day. By the time you read this, however it will be the next day, so ‘yesterday’ below really means ‘two days ago’. Sorry for the confusion… Yesterday I mentioned William’s multimodal way of taking in information: his eyes staring at things I could […]
My interest in the brain arises from having a brother who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. For the longest time I wanted to understand what the brain does and why my brother is the way he is. Today’s post and yesterday’s post focus on an effort from 1934 to define what thought is and […]
Yesterday, my post was about language and thought. My interest in this topic stems from trying to communicate with my older brother who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. It is a mystery to me what, if anything, he is thinking. Today’s post is a first look at an attempt to explain thought, from many […]
Today I pigged out at the bookstore. I have given a lot of thought to the idea of communication and language in my attempt to understand the gulf between my autistic, profoundly retarded, nonverbal brother and me. In yesterday’s post I reviewed the basic components of communications systems – without regard to the content of […]
