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The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
The author of the bestseller The Disappearing Spoon reveals the secret inner workings of the brain through strange but true stories.
Early studies of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike — strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, horrendous accidents — and see how victims coped. In many cases their survival was miraculous, if puzzling. Observers were amazed by the transformations that took place when different parts of the brain were destroyed, altering victims' personalities. Parents suddenly couldn't recognize their own children. Pillars of the community became pathological liars. Some people couldn't speak but could still sing.
In The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean travels through time with stories of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, Siamese twin brains, viruses that eat patients' memories, blind people who see through their tongues. He weaves these narratives together with prose that makes the pages fly by, to create a story of discovery that reaches back to the 1500s and the high-profile jousting accident that inspired this book's title.
With the lucid, masterful explanations and razor-sharp wit his fans have come to expect, Kean explores the brain's secret passageways and recounts the forgotten tales of the ordinary people whose struggles, resilience, and deep humanity made neuroscience possible.

Expand title description text
Publisher: Hachette Audio Edition: Unabridged
Awards:

OverDrive Listen audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781478953715
  • File size: 363379 KB
  • Release date: May 6, 2014
  • Duration: 12:37:02

MP3 audiobook

  • ISBN: 9781478953715
  • File size: 363445 KB
  • Release date: May 6, 2014
  • Duration: 12:36:58
  • Number of parts: 12

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Formats

OverDrive Listen audiobook
MP3 audiobook

Languages

English

The author of the bestseller The Disappearing Spoon reveals the secret inner workings of the brain through strange but true stories.
Early studies of the human brain used a simple method: wait for misfortune to strike — strokes, seizures, infectious diseases, horrendous accidents — and see how victims coped. In many cases their survival was miraculous, if puzzling. Observers were amazed by the transformations that took place when different parts of the brain were destroyed, altering victims' personalities. Parents suddenly couldn't recognize their own children. Pillars of the community became pathological liars. Some people couldn't speak but could still sing.
In The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons, Sam Kean travels through time with stories of neurological curiosities: phantom limbs, Siamese twin brains, viruses that eat patients' memories, blind people who see through their tongues. He weaves these narratives together with prose that makes the pages fly by, to create a story of discovery that reaches back to the 1500s and the high-profile jousting accident that inspired this book's title.
With the lucid, masterful explanations and razor-sharp wit his fans have come to expect, Kean explores the brain's secret passageways and recounts the forgotten tales of the ordinary people whose struggles, resilience, and deep humanity made neuroscience possible.

Expand title description text
  • Details

    Publisher:
    Hachette Audio
    Edition:
    Unabridged

    Awards:

    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    ISBN: 9781478953715
    File size: 363379 KB
    Release date: May 6, 2014
    Duration: 12:37:02

    MP3 audiobook
    ISBN: 9781478953715
    File size: 363445 KB
    Release date: May 6, 2014
    Duration: 12:36:58
    Number of parts: 12

  • Creators
  • Formats
    OverDrive Listen audiobook
    MP3 audiobook
  • Languages
    English
  • Reviews
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