Neuroanatomist Learns From Her Own Stroke

Posted on March 12, 2008

Jill Bolte Taylor became a brain scientist because she wanted to study her brother's schizophrenia. In this talk at TED she explains how she analyzed her own stroke after a blood vessel exploded in the left side of her brain. She explains how she felt her own brain fuctions slip away. She says she became an "infant in a woman's body."

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another.

She brings an actual human brain to the TED conference. You can see the video below or here.

THE MIND