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Cerebrum 2002

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Brainsick: A Physician’s Journey to the Brink

How could a brilliant physician—a noted researcher, medical school dean, and head of pharmaceutical research for an international drug company—miss decades of the telltale signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder until the day when a disordered brain trumped reason, the caring of family, and the power of modern medicine? Is there a road to recovery?

By: Leon E. Rosenberg, M.D.

Cerebrum

Patients Have Been Too Patient With Basic Research

Steinman has devoted his long career to pioneering studies of immunology. Basic research of this kind has been hugely productive, he says, but its potential benefits for treating serious illnesses are taking too long to reach patients. We are failing to maintain a crucial transmission belt between basic research and clinical applications: the physician-scientist. We must take immediate and effective steps to reverse this trend, because our lives “may one day depend upon the progress of medicine.”

By: Ralph M. Steinman, M.D., Maia Szalavitz

Cerebrum

The Telltale Hand

How Writing Reveals the Damaged Brain

As the handwriting process is impacted by disease or trauma, it is altered in specific ways that provide an intriguing, often underestimated window into the brain.

By: Marc J. Seifer, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

The World Needs People With Asperger’s Syndrome

American Normal

Book review of American Normal by Lawrence Osborne

By: Temple Grandin, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Touching Tastes, Seeing Smells—and Shaking Up Brain Science

People with synesthesia may hear colored sounds or even taste shapes, because the joining of two senses runs through almost every possible combination. New research suggests that what was once seen as merely a bizarre disorder raises knotty questions for brain science and may offer clues to the brain’s mysteries.

By: Richard E. Cytowic, M.D.

Cerebrum

Neuroethics: Mapping the Field

150 neuroscientists, bioethicists, philosophers, professors of law, policy makers, and others began two days of intense discussion and debate over what a new field called “neuroethics” will look like and what its most urgent immediate questions may be.

Cerebrum

Prancing Primates, Turtle with Toys

It’s More Than Just (Animal) Play

Human offspring aren’t the only ones who love to play. In the struggle for survival, why did evolution favor play in species from rats to ravens? Based on new research about the connections between brain development and play, behavioral biologist Dugatkin puts some hypotheses to the test. Why do young ravens play with virtually any new kind of object they encounter but adult ravens fear anything new? Why do fierce older chimps let their little brothers win the tussle? The answers, writes Dugatkin, show that play is serious brain business, both in humans and in other species.

By: Lee Alan Dugatkin, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

The Two Faces of MRI

Magnetic resonance imaging may be the biggest boon to patients since anesthesia, says Uttal, who gives us a tour of greater imaging wonders to come.

By: William R. Uttal, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Shock Waves: A Scientist Studies His Stroke

With an international reputation in dream research, Hobson met his toughest analytic challenge in February 2001: his own stroke. With his intellectual abilities intact, Hobson struggled to make sense of mysterious changes in his sleep and dreaming. It was just the beginning.

By: J. Allan Hobson, M.D.

Cerebrum

Brain Books for Budding Scientists—and All Children

One of Cerebrum’s most popular features was the 1999 survey of “Great Brain Books.” But what is out there for kids curious about the most complex, fascinating subject in the known universe? An experienced reviewer of science books for children reports that there is a treasure trove waiting for them. Here are brief reviews of the best-known recent books for young, middle, and older students.

By: Carolyn Phelan

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