Most people, even most doctors, learn that the placenta is a nice, tight seal that prevents anything in the mother’s body from invading the fetus, and vice-versa. That’s mostly true. But the placenta doesn’t seal off the baby perfectly, and every so often, something slips across. Sam Kean Read Quote
In a vague way, I always knew neurosurgery was different – more delicate, more difficult, more demanding. After all, we say things like, ‘I’m no brain surgeon,’ for a reason. Sam Kean Read Quote
Although it’s the hub of the nervous system and the ultimate terminus of every nerve, the brain itself lacks enervation and therefore cannot feel pain. Sam Kean Read Quote
Brain surgery couldn’t happen without the patient’s own active voice to guide the work. The patient is part of the surgical team here, perhaps the most important part, and above all, that’s what makes neurosurgery different. Sam Kean Read Quote
X-rays revealed that some people were born without a corpus callosum, and they seemed just fine. Sam Kean Read Quote
The brain, which is plastic when young, must be exposed to certain sights early in life, or it will remain blind to those sights forever. Sam Kean Read Quote
Animal vision – including human vision – is so biased toward movement that we don’t technically see stationary objects at all. Sam Kean Read Quote
Microchimeric sharing means that, even if the mother loses a child, she’ll have a small memento of him or her secreted away inside her. Similarly, a bit of our mothers live on in all of us no matter how long ago Mom died. Sam Kean Read Quote
To be sure, ASPM isn’t the gene responsible for building big brains – there’s no such single gene. But it’s critical to the process, and the primate line has almost certainly benefited from distinct changes in ASPM. Sam Kean Read Quote
What I find fascinating is the idea that we all have a physical brain, but we also have this mental part, and we have to figure out how they work together. Sam Kean Read Quote
