CLINICAL FOCUS 1-1 LIVING WITH TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY

1-1 NEUROSCIENCE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

WHY STUDY BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR?

WHAT IS THE BRAIN?

WHAT IS BEHAVIOR?

1-2 PERSPECTIVES ON BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

ARISTOTLE AND MENTALISM

DESCARTES AND DUALISM

DARWIN AND MATERIALISM

COMPARATIVE FOCUS 1-2 THE SPEAKING BRAIN

EXPERIMENT 1-1 QUESTION: HOW DO PARENTS TRANSMIT HERITABLE FACTORS TO OFFSPRING?

CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES ON BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

1-3 EVOLUTION OF BRAINS AND OF BEHAVIOR

ORIGIN OF BRAIN CELLS AND BRAINS

THE BASICS CLASSIFICATION OF LIFE

EVOLUTION OF NERVOUS SYSTEMS IN ANIMALS

CHORDATE NERVOUS SYSTEM

1-4 EVOLUTION OF THE HUMAN BRAIN AND BEHAVIOR

HUMANS: MEMBERS OF THE PRIMATE ORDER

AUSTRALOPITHECUS: OUR DISTANT ANCESTOR

THE FIRST HUMANS

RELATING BRAIN SIZE AND BEHAVIOR

COMPARATIVE FOCUS 1-3 THE ELEPHANT’S BRAIN

WHY THE HOMINID BRAIN ENLARGED

1-5 MODERN HUMAN BRAIN SIZE AND INTELLIGENCE

MEANING OF HUMAN BRAIN SIZE COMPARISONS

ACQUISITION OF CULTURE

Living with Traumatic Brain Injury

Fred Linge, a clinical psychologist with a degree in brain research, wrote this description 12 years after his head injury occurred:

In the second it took for my car to crash head-on, my life was permanently changed, and I became another statistic in what has been called “the silent epidemic.”

During the next months, my family and I began to understand something of the reality of the experience of head injury. I had begun the painful task of recognizing and accepting my physical, mental, and emotional deficits. I couldn’t taste or smell. I couldn’t read even the simplest sentence without forgetting the beginning before I got to the end. I had a hair-trigger temper that could ignite instantly into rage over the most trivial incident. . . .

Two years after my injury, I wrote a short article: “What Does It Feel Like to Be Brain Damaged?” At that time, I was still intensely focusing on myself and my own struggle. (Every head-injured survivor I have met seems to go through this stage of narcissistic preoccupation, which creates a necessary shield to protect them from the painful realities of the situation until they have a chance to heal.) I had very little sense of anything beyond the material world and could only write about things that could be described in factual terms. I wrote, for example, about my various impairments and how I learned to compensate for them by a variety of methods.

At this point in my life, I began to involve myself with other brain-damaged people. This came about in part after the publication of my article. To my surprise, it was reprinted in many different publications, copied, and handed out to thousands of survivors and families. It brought me an enormous outpouring of letters, phone calls, and personal visits that continue to this day. Many were struggling as I had struggled, with no diagnosis, no planning, no rehabilitation, and most of all, no hope. . . . The catastrophic effect of my injury was such that I was shattered and then remolded by the experience, and I emerged from it a profoundly different person with a different set of convictions, values, and priorities. (Linge, 1990)

In the years after his traumatic brain injury (TBI)—a wound to the brain that results from a blow to the head—Fred Linge made a journey. Before the car crash, he gave little thought to the relation between his brain and his behavior. After the crash, adapting to his injured brain and behavior dominated his life. On his journey, Linge learned how his injured brain affected his behavior, he relearned many skills, and he learned to compensate for the impairments his changed brain imposed on him.