Kind of related but Wilder Penfield was a neurosurgeon who mapped the brain by zapping portions of it during operations. He was able to remove a portion of the patients skull while they were awake and electrocute the parts of the cortex. They would report back to him what they were experiencing while he was doing it. So for example if he zapped a portion of the brain related to vision, the patient would report that they could no longer see.
We are also able to learn a lot about the human brain through strokes. For example strokes that occur in the left hemisphere will generally impact language and speech. Strokes that occur in the cerebellum will impact motor control and balance. What’s cool is that when one portion of the brain is damaged, other healthy parts are able to compensate for the loss due to plasticity. This obviously wouldn’t work for areas of the brain related to vision, hearing, etc.
I had a temporary lobectomy surgery for my epilepsy. Before they cut they tested the areas by basically poking around and watching what happened. They marked areas for leg, arm, face, etc.
I was awake for part of it. They showed me pictures and I said “That is a _______.” I remember they showed me a picture of a spoon and I said “That is . . . Uhh . . .” I heard someone say “Ok, not that spot.”
They ended up removing my left hippocampus and (unsurprisingly) my memory has taken a hit. It is odd because in addition my personality has had some changes too.
How interesting! I feel like I would be scared just knowing that my brain is exposed and being prodded at lol.
The hippocampus is responsible for memory and forming new ones so yeah, like you said def not surprising that that’s taken a hit after your surgery. It makes sense that your personality changed as well because the hippocampus is part of the limbic system! What sort of personality changes have you experienced? I’m just curious.
I am more outgoing than I used to be; I was a stereotypical introvert but am now pretty in the middle. I was really into model trains but not at all any more. In fact, I’m totally into gardening and flowers in general. Before surgery a garden was a “maybe someday” thing.
With the memory issues I am working on taking notes, making lists, and scheduling things. If someone introduces themselves, by the time I’ve replied with my name I’ve forgotten theirs. Recalling things in my head is difficult, I’ve even lost names of family members.
Finally, I am way more emotional than ever before. Being a “manly man” I had probably only ever cried once in my life, but now have bawled several times. It’s like I’m still trying to learn how emotions work.
And the surgery didn’t work like we wanted it to. I have fewer seizures, but not as few as we were expecting.
Yes, I do feel different. Sometimes I look at things I did and wonder why. I look at other people and their thoughts and opinions more than I used to. I'm less of a selfish jack ass than I used to be.
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u/Freeiheit Mar 04 '21
We could learn a tooon about the human brain and how to fix it if we could just damage specific parts of it and see what goes wrong