Stop Hitting Yourself.

I'm watching this show on the Science Channel called The Secret Life of the Brain, specifically the episode "Losing Myself."

It's about neurological disorders that cause uncontrollable impulses. One woman had an operation to control her epilepsy in which the two lobes of her brain were separated. It got rid of her epilepsy, but gave her so-called, "Alien Limb Syndrome." It's when her left arm and hand, do whatever they want. She describes it has having a "5 year old controlling the thing every minute of every day." The clips of her doing everyday tasks were very interesting. It looks like she just randomly starts waving to someone or tapping her fingers or even hitting herself in the face (I realize that reading this, you probably think I'm a horribly insensitive person because of that title, but I am a teenager and it was what I thought when that happened, and it was FUNNY); but she has no control over it. She went to talk to an Alien Limb Syndrome expert and he had her hold common objects in her hand with her eyes closed. She couldn't identify a pencil when she was holding it, or a regular dinner fork. She knew she was holding something because he put it in her hand and said he was putting it there, but other than that, she wouldn't have known.

Our brains are very interesting. Every since I got a book from my friend about a neurosurgeon*, I've been more interested in how our brains work. Our brains do a lot of things involuntarily: pump blood, breath, sweat, digest food; if they didn't do them, we wouldn't be able to survive because we'd be continuously trying to do all of those things at once. I feel like when things like Alien Limb Syndrome happens, it's almost like the brain telling us that it can do what it wants, when it wants. It puts a whole new perspective on the idea of free will. How free are our minds if our brains can take over a whole limb? (and yes, I think the brain and the mind are different).

Just some thoughts.

*Another Day in the Frontal Lobe by Katrina Firlik, you should read it, it was really good.