The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

I also owe a debt of gratitude to the many patients who cooperated with me over the years. Many of them were in depressing situations, obviously, but most of them were unselfishly willing to help advance basic science in whatever way they could. Without them this book could not have been written. Naturally, I care about protecting their privacy. In the interest of confidentiality, all names, dates, and places, and in some instances the circumstances surrounding the admission of the patient, have been disguised. The conversations with patients (such as those with language problems) are literal transcripts of videotapes, except in a few cases where I had to re-create our exchanges based on memory. In one case (“John,” in Chapter 2, who developed embolic stroke originating from veins around an inflamed appendix) I have described appendicitis as it usually presents itself since notes on this particular case were unavailable. And the conversation with this patient is an edited summary of the conversation as recounted by the physician who originally saw him. In all cases the key symptoms and signs and history that are relevant to the neurological aspect of patients’ problems are presented as accurately as possible. But other aspects have been changed—for example, a patient who is fifty rather than fifty-five may have had an embolism originating in the heart rather than leg—so that even a close friend or relative would be unable to recognize the patient from the description.

I turn now to thank friends and colleagues with whom I have had productive conversations over the years. I list them in alphabetical order: Krishnaswami Alladi, John Allman, Eric Altschuler, Stuart Anstis, Carrie Armel, Shai Azoulai, Horace Barlow, Mary Beebe, Roger Bingham, Colin Blakemore, Sandy Blakeslee, Geoff Boynton, Oliver Braddick, David Brang, Mike Calford, Fergus Campbell, Pat Cavanagh, Pat and Paul Churchland, Steve Cobb, Francis Crick, Tony and Hanna Damasio, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Anthony Deutsch, Diana Deutsch, Paul Drake, Gerry Edelman, Jeff Elman, Richard Friedberg, Sir Alan Gilchrist, Beatrice Golomb, Al Gore (the “real” president), Richard Gregory, Mushirul Hasan, Afrei Hesam, Bill Hirstein, Mikhenan (“Mikhey”) Horvath, Ed Hubbard, David Hubel, Nick Humphrey, Mike Hyson, Sudarshan Iyengar, Mumtaz Jahan, Jon Kaas, Eric Kandel, Dorothy Kleffner, E. S. Krishnamoorthy, Ranjit Kumar, Leah Levi, Steve Link, Rama Mani, Paul McGeoch, Don McLeod, Sarada Menon, Mike Merzenich, Ranjit Nair, Ken Nakayama, Lindsay Oberman, Ingrid Olson, Malini Parthasarathy, Hal Pashler, David Peterzell, Jack Pettigrew, Jaime Pineda, Dan Plummer, Alladi Prabhakar, David Presti, N. Ram and N. Ravi (editors of The Hindu), Alladi Ramakrishnan, V. Madhusudhan Rao, Sushila Ravindranath, Beatrice Ring, Bill Rosar, Oliver Sacks, Terry Sejnowski, Chetan Shah, Naidu (“Spencer”) Sitaram, John Smythies, Allan Snyder, Larry Squire, Krishnamoorthy Srinivas, A. V. Srinivasan, Krishnan Sriram, Subramaniam Sriram, Lance Stone, Somtow (“Cookie”) Sucharitkul, K. V. Thiruvengadam, Chris Tyler, Claude Valenti, Ajit Varki, Ananda Veerasurya, Nairobi Venkataraman, Alladi Venkatesh, T. R. Vidyasagar, David Whitteridge, Ben Williams, Lisa Williams, Chris Wills, Piotr Winkielman, and John Wixted.

Thanks to Elizabeth Seckel and Petra Ostermuencher for their help.

I also thank Diane, Mani, and Jaya, who are an endless source of delight and inspiration. The Nature paper they published with me on flounder camouflage made a huge splash in the ichthyology world.

Julia Kindy Langley kindled my passion for the science of art.

Last but not least, I am grateful to the National Institutes of Health for funding much of the research reported in the book, and to private donors and patrons: Abe Pollin, Herb Lurie, Dick Geckler, and Charlie Robins.

THE TELL-TALE BRAIN

INTRODUCTION

No Mere Ape

Now I am quite sure that if we had these three creatures fossilized or preserved in spirits for comparison and were quite unprejudiced judges, we should at once admit that there is very little greater interval as animals between the gorilla and the man than exists between the gorilla and the baboon.

—THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY,

lecturing at the Royal

Institution, London

“I know, my dear Watson, that you share my love of all that is bizarre and outside the conventions and humdrum routine of everyday life.”

—SHERLOCK HOLMES