https://petapixel.com/2017/05/15/artist-captured-nightmares-sleep-paralysis/

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/anxiety-and-sleep

Oliver Sacks was a physician and neurologist who shared his experiences with various patients suffering from unique but interesting disorders of the brain through his writing. He explains the situations and phenomena that he observed in an easy to understand way, allowing the reader to appreciate disorders they may have never really understood or heard of. In his novel, the Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, disorders such as visual agnosia, Korsakoff’s Syndrome, loss of proprioception, and many more were explored through Sacks recalling experiences with the individuals who had these neurological conditions.

A very extraordinary yet difficult story to listen to was Christina’s. Christina needed to get surgery inorder to remove gallstones. However, before the surgery, she had a very concerning dream unlike any other. In the dream, Christina lost her sense of coordination and muscle tone. Her psychiatrist chalked it up to pre-operative anxiety, but the scariest and most unsettling thing to occur was that her dream became reality. Christina’s life was altered in the most challenging way, as she needed to learn how to do things one wouldn’t even need to think about doing. This story really puts into perspective how we really take the simplest abilities for granted, as we don’t even realize how much our body automatically does for us. Christina lost all muscle sense, as her prioception system was essentially offline. She had to learn how to do the most basic of things again, such as holding her posture in a functional way and grasping/holding objects. Her visual system needed to help compensate for this sudden loss in proprioception, as the sense of her body in space was completely foreign to her without sight. Her sense of position was completely compromised. The thought of having to make accommodations to every aspect of your life for things that came so naturally before is unthinkable. Christina was a very strong and resilient person for having the mental stamina and drive to adapt to this newfound condition, even when things were extremely bleak or seemed near impossible to adjust to.

Another story that made a deep impression on me was the story of Jimmie, who had amnesia. He was essentially stuck in the past, specifically the year 1945. He believed he was 17 years old when he was an older man, and he lacked the ability to form new memories. Something that stuck with me was how he had the capacity to recognize his brother, and see his brother’s physically older appearance, yet he so fiercely believed he, himself, was a young man (since he was basically stuck in the past). His reasoning for the apparent differences in physical appearance was that ‘some people just age faster’. This line really hurts to hear.

Lastly, the story of Mrs. S, who couldn’t perceive any visual stimuli in her left visual field, perplexed me. I thought it was tragic how she knew and understood her disability, yet it could not be helped. She did try strategies such as rotating her plate once she finished all the food on the right side so that she could see the remaining meal, but even with this awareness, she faced a lot of hardship with other activities. When using the camera system to see her left side of her face, she became distressed, which was another heartbreaking thing to read. Though somewhat depressing, these stories have left me enlightened with a new understanding of some struggles I couldn’t even imagine existed.

ARS 390 Oliver Sacks Assignment

An interesting piece that combines art and the brain is this work depicting the cerebellum, created by Greg Dunn. “Self-Reflected” is a project showcasing various micro-etching of the brain. The piece below is eye-catching due to its vibrancy and colorful nature. There’s a flow evident, as a networks of neurons are depicted. This fits the cerebellum well since it is the brain center for coordinating movement and rhythmic patterns.

The Art and Concept of Self Reflected