Oliver Sacks / Brain peculiarities (was Multiple Topics )

[Sister Mary Lunatic]

Oliver Sacks' books are fascinating.  I've read "The Man Who Mistook..." --
I think that was the one that had the chapter about synesthesia, which is a
condition where a person's brain is wired differently to produce "abnormal"
sensations, such as seeing colors when you hear music, or feeling objects
when you taste something.  There was one woman who saw jagged yellow
lightning every time a pager buzzed in her vicinity, and a friend of Sacks
made an offhand remark about the dinner he was cooking... that the flavor of
the chicken didn't have enough "points," and then sheepishly explained that
when he tasted the chicken, he could see a field of cone-shaped objects when
the chicken was cooked just right. Another person said that he could feel a
cool marble pillar against his fingers every time he tasted a certain food.
Really weird and interesting reading.

Sacks also wrote "Awakenings" which was made into a movie, with Robin
Williams and Robert de Niro -- also excellent.

SML


Catlady wrote:

That's what the current movie Memento is about. I haven't seen it, but
it has been much discussed in the media. When Tim heard one of those
chat shows about it and started questioning me, I directed him to read
(actually, listen on cassette, this being Tim) Oliver Sacks'
best-seller, The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, which describes
several people who had that syndrome (for them, it was Karsakov's
Syndrome caused by alcoholism).