Archive for the "brain. Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita" Tag

Can the Brain Change?

Posted on August 23, 2013 5:27 PM by Dr. Jo in Brain | 0 Comments

In my medical school days (late 1960’s) The brain was thought to have localized areas that performed certain functions and these areas did not change. Once they were damaged they were gone and nothing could be done about it.

 

This “localization” concept started in 1861 with Dr. Paul Broca, a surgeon. One of his patients could not speak after suffering a stroke. Since they did not have MRIs or CT or PET scans then, they performed a lot of autopsies to understand what happened anatomically. At autopsy the area of brain damage that caused loss of speech became known … Read the rest