Speakers
Dr. John Connolly
Department of Linguistics and Languages, McMaster UniversityStart
October 12, 2017 - 12:00 am
End
As you look at this program guide you take it for granted that you can read it or that someone can read it to you and you understand them…and you aware of what is happening around you all the while. All of these things “just happen” – until until they don’t. In this talk I will describe research in cognitive neuroscience using brain imaging tools to understand how speech comprehension and reading occur in the brain across both time – measured in thousandths of a second – and space – measured in millimeters from one brain region to another. I will then describe what happens when the brain seemingly loses these abilities either abruptly as can be seen in many acquired brain injuries or more gradually as can be observed in some neuropathological conditions. I will present some research examining brain injuries ranging from concussion to coma and why traditional diagnoses of some of the resulting conditions are wrong over 40% of the time. Finally, I will present new research methods that enable the damaged brain to provide information about what skills it retains, which ones it has lost, and whether the diagnosed medical condition is correct or whether it falls into that 40+% error category. All of this information is now being used to study one of the most complex phenomena in brain research – consciousness.
Post Presentation Links:
A series of articles from the Hamilton Spectator
Book
Jean-Dominique Bauby, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death
Film/Video
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon – The Diving Bell amd the Butterfly (Dir.: J Schanbel)
Life on Mars (UK) BBC ONE (2006-2007)
Talk to Her – Habla con Ella (Dit. & Writer: P. Almodóvar)