An Anthropologist on Mars

Case studies of seven of Sacks' patients illustrate both how fragile the human brain is but also how adaptable - and how little we understand it. Two chapters on patients with autism are very interesting, including Temple Grandin, an autistic woman who has a successful profession, runs her own business, and gives talks on what it's like to be autistic. An artist who becomes colour blind mid-career. A blind man whose sight is restored. I found this one particularly fascinating as Sacks points out all the things that sighted people take for granted, but which aren't obvious to the blind, such as the concept of "distance". A sighted person looks at the door across the room and calculates distance based on visual experience; but a blind person can't even conceive of this concept. The blind person will calculate in terms of time: time it would take to walk there, or time it would take for an echo to come back. The blind person knows "it is 3 seconds to the door" which the sighted person has no idea of. Thus, in cases where sight has been given to people blind since birth, they have great difficulty with depth perception and understanding that something that looks smaller is further away. As always Sacks provides a friendly and approachable introduction to fascinating topics and leaves the reader with a greater appreciation for the mysteries of the brain.

Creo que todos podemos coincidir con la frase "cada cabeza es un mundo". La diversidad, que tanto nos distingue en nuestra especie, no sólo depende de la apariencia o de dónde somos sino también de lo que está nuestra mente. Un tema muy interesante a evaluar es la plasticidad del cerebro humano expuesto en este libro sobre 7 casos clínicos neurológicos. Profundiza en la teoría sobre lo que damos por sentado, cosas como el color, la emoción, la memoria y la perspectiva. Cosas que sin ellas pareciera podríamos quedarnos sin nada. Sin embargo un vuelco en nuestro cerebro, puede cambiarlo todo, y esa adaptación interna permite formar una vida diferente e integral a pesar que parece imposible imaginar la vida sin ellos. Supongo que tiene sentido que un libro sobre el cerebro invite a la reflexión, porque nuestros cerebros son los centros de nuestra existencia, la forma en que percibimos todo lo que está pasando por dentro y por fuera. Y, muchas veces, lo que parece una discapacidad puede terminar un regalo.