Monday, March 17, 2008

TED Talks 2008: Jill Bolte Taylor - My stroke of insight

Very cool TED Talk. Now you can also read the transcript.

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.



One morning, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. As a brain scientist, she realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke. She watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness ...

Amazed to find herself alive, Taylor spent eight years recovering her ability to think, walk and talk. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In her case, although the stroke damaged the left side of her brain, her recovery unleashed a torrent of creative energy from her right. From her home base in Indiana, she now travels the country on behalf of the Harvard Brain Bank as the "Singin' Scientist."

"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."

~ Jill Bolte Taylor


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It amazes me that she says she would have the stroke all over again for what it taught her about being a human being, even though it took her 8 years to fully recover. I loved the video on TED.

Also, did you see Dr Taylor's interviews with Oprah on Soul Series - wonderful!

Best of all is her book MY STROKE OF INSIGHT - I've read it twice already. Second time better than the first

Dr. Taylor is a great inspiration. The lessons in the book are life-changing...very simple yet very powerful.
Stroke
Here's the link to the book http://www.amazon.com/My--Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0670020745/ref=pd_ts_b_12?ie=UTF8&s=books

and here's the link to Oprah's interviews
http://www2.oprah.com/spiritself/oss/guest/oss_guest_jboltetaylor.jhtml