Neuro Note #4 CVA

For the last neuro note, I watched a TED Talk about a lady who is a brain scientist, advocate for National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and researcher. She started her career because of her brother having schizophrenia and became interested in researching severe mental illnesses. With that being said, what are the odds that something happens to her own brain? Well in this TED talk titled "My Stoke of Insight," Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor shares her story about her own experience recovering from a stroke and the journey throughout having the stroke. She was able to watch her own brain and do the research and studying on herself. She experienced a hemorrhagic stroke in 1996 and it took away her ability to speak, walk, think, and memory. The stroke brought damage to the left side of her brain, with early signs being pain behind her left eye, her gait slowed down and became rigid, being able to receive and express language became difficult and her right arm became paralyzed. She discussed in the video the differences that each hemisphere has in regards to how we function physically, emotionally and mentally, as well as our motor and sensory skills. It has taken her 8 years to fully recover from her symptoms that occurred from the stroke. The way she told her story was so engaging and the perspective from a very own neuroanatomist was very neat. She was lucky to live because these types of strokes can be fatal. What was told in this video correlated well with what we learned in class about strokes. It is a form of an acquired brain injury and further classified as a non-traumatic brain injury. Also the symptoms that Jill described coincide with symptoms of a stroke. I really enjoyed how she described the sides of the brain in her own terms and feelings. It brought a different meaning to how the brain regulates and works. I am glad I chose this particular TED talk. She was a joy to listen to and it was cool to hear her story and "insight" on a stroke. Lastly,, she has written a book about this experience and a picture of it is provided below.






Here is the link to access Taylor's TED talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight

Reference:

Taylor, J. B. (2008, February). Retrieved August 13, 2019, from https://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight