(http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html)
From her website: (http://www.drjilltaylor.com)
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist who experienced a severe hemorrhage in the left hemisphere of her brain in 1996. During this talk Dr. Jill presents an actual human brain as a prop to explain the differences between the left and right hemispheres and how they connect. Dr. Jill has a unique perspective on how the brain works after experiencing a stroke.
She describes the right brain as a parallel processor thinking in pictures and movements. It is sensory and lives in the here and now. The right brain is our conscious connection between the reality of our world and the energy of our being.
The left brain, in contrast, is a serial processor. It is thinks in language; it is a linear and methodical calculating intelligence. The left brain remembers details. It categorizes and creates associations and projects into the future. Dr. Jill explains how the left brain is the link between the internal world and the external one.
The stroke suffered by Dr. Bolte damaged the left side of her brain, leaving her drifting in and out of reality and into a euphoric state in her right brain. As she lost her grip on reality she could no longer remember her past and she lost the ability to define herself in space and time.
She had the good fortune of being young enough to recover from this event and getting the very best care. Dr. Jill was 37 at the time of her stroke most people are much older at the time of their strokes making aggressive treatment unlikely to provide good quality of life. Also, Dr, Jill’s, recovery took her eight years; more time than older stroke victims may have.
My mother suffered a stroke in October of 2009. Initially she recovered almost completely. But, within two weeks she could no longer walk or manage bodily functions. About two weeks later she began to lose her grip on reality. She started slipping into the right brain as Dr. Jill talks about. She would hallucinate and not know when or where she was. This would come in ever increasing waves lasting longer and getting more intense.
It was clear that there would not be any effective recovery for my mother. The hardest decisions of my life were made. After more than two months of the hardest fight my mother ever put up, she transitioned from this world to the next.
After experiencing my mother’s death I am interested in other peoples experience with stroke. Dr. Jill has an amazing perspective. This information was personally touching and will stay with me for a lifetime.
Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's Website
Links and information about Dr. Jill, her book, public speaking, advocacy, and more.
After a Stroke, a Scientist Studies Herself
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91861432
Listen to an NPR radio interview and read an exerpt from the book “My Stroke of Insight”.
The 2008 Time 100
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733754_1735155,00.html
Our fifth annual list of the world's most influential people: leaders, thinkers, heroes, artists, scientists and more
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