The Man Who Tasted Words
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The Man Who Tasted Words
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Author : Guy Leschziner
language : en
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Release Date : 2022-02-03
The Man Who Tasted Words written by Guy Leschziner and has been published by Simon and Schuster this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-02-03 with Self-Help categories.
‘From the opening paragraph, I was spellbound, entranced. Through real stories about what happens when our fragile perception of the world around us and within us is severed, Guy Leschziner connects us back to our senses.’ Professor Alice Roberts Where are you now? Look around you; what can you see? Close your eyes and think of a loved one – do you see their face? Stretch out a hand; what can you feel with your fingertips, your palm, the soft underside of your wrist? What can you hear – nearby and far away? The information you receive from your senses makes up your world. But that world does not exist. What we perceive to be the absolute truth of the world around us is a complex reconstruction, a virtual reality created by the complex machinations of our minds in tandem with the wiring of our nervous systems. But what happens if that wiring goes awry? What happens if connections falter, or new and unexpected connections are made? Tiny shifts in the microbiology of our nervous systems can cause the world around us to shift and mutate, to become alien and unfamiliar. In The Man Who Tasted Words, consultant neurologist Guy Leschziner takes us on a journey through the senses, exploring how each one shapes our experience of the world. And investigating what happens when they deviate from the norm. Along the way we meet a number of extraordinary individuals and step through the looking glass and into their worlds. Worlds where hot and cold are reversed, where a person with no sight sees fantastical visions, or where words have a taste and sounds create sensations. But while fascinating, their experiences are more than simply curiosities. They teach us about our own perception of the world, forcing us to question the idea of ‘normal’ senses, and whether such a thing even exists. Does blue look the same to you and me? Does grass smell the same? Or sugar taste as sweet? Do we even have the same understanding of what ‘sweet’ is? The Man Who Tasted Words unpacks the science behind your senses and challenges you to try and see the world through another’s eyes – and ears, and nose and mouth. It will illuminate, it will surprise, and it will leave your world just a little bit changed. ? ‘A truly astonishing book – from the story of the man who tasted words to that of Paul who could pull out his own teeth and break his legs yet feel no pain. These are beautifully and engagingly written stories of how our senses tell us about the reality of the world – or, sometimes, don’t.’ Gavin Esler, author of How Britain Ends ‘Stories of people who experience the world differently show us what it means to be human. This is a deeply moving and powerful book, full of provocative ideas about human perception and the way we construct reality.’ Daniel M. Davis, author of The Secret Body and The Beautiful Cure ‘This is a book vibrant with personality and full of wonder. Professor Leschziner takes us through an exploration of our senses, making us question the nature of our reality and how we interpret the world around us. It is a profound, entertaining and quite exceptional book.’ Dr Alastair Santhouse, Psychiatrist and Author of Head First ‘In vivid stories of patient maladies that affect our very human sensations of sight, sound, smell, touch and pain, Leschziner has deeply explored the sensory experiences that bombard every moment of our lives but of which we are barely aware. What a terrific melding of brain science with thoughtful ideas on our window to the outside world.’ Allan Ropper, author of Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole and How the Brain Lost its Mind. ‘A fascinating, important and disturbing book. Words will never taste the same again!’ John Humphrys
The Man Who Tasted Shapes Revised Edition
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Author : Richard E. Cytowic
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2008-07-01
The Man Who Tasted Shapes Revised Edition written by Richard E. Cytowic and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-07-01 with Science categories.
In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, or "joined sensation," illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what it means to be human. Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands, and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in 1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He is one of the few world authorities on the subject. Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means "joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's original experiments led to a neurological explanation—and to a new concept of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason. That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality that, he argues, exists in everyone but is often just below the surface of awareness (which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive). In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, far from being a mere curiosity, illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what is means to be human—a view that turns upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding. This 2003 edition features a new afterword.
The Nocturnal Brain
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Author : Dr. Guy Leschziner
language : en
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date : 2020-09-08
The Nocturnal Brain written by Dr. Guy Leschziner and has been published by St. Martin's Griffin this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-09-08 with Health & Fitness categories.
A renowned neurologist shares the true stories of people unable to get a good night’s rest in The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep, a fascinating exploration of the symptoms and syndromes behind sleep disorders. For Dr. Guy Leschziner’s patients, there is no rest for the weary in mind and body. Insomnia, narcolepsy, night terrors, apnea, and sleepwalking are just a sampling of conditions afflicting sufferers who cannot sleep—and their experiences in trying are the stuff of nightmares. Demoniac hallucinations frighten people into paralysis. Restless legs rock both the sleepless and their sleeping partners with unpredictable and uncontrollable kicking. Out-of-sync circadian rhythms confuse the natural body clock’s days and nights. Then there are the extreme cases. A woman in a state of deep sleep who gets dressed, unlocks her car, and drives for several miles before returning to bed. The man who has spent decades cleaning out kitchens while “sleep-eating.” The teenager prone to the serious, yet unfortunately nicknamed Sleeping Beauty Syndrome stuck in a cycle of excessive unconsciousness, binge eating, and uncharacteristic displays of aggression and hypersexuality while awake. With compassionate stories of his patients and their conditions, Dr. Leschziner illustrates the neuroscience behind our sleeping minds, revealing the many biological and psychological factors necessary in getting the rest that will not only maintain our physical and mental health, but improve our cognitive abilities and overall happiness.
The Man Who Tasted Words
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Author : Guy Leschziner
language : en
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Release Date : 2022-02-22
The Man Who Tasted Words written by Guy Leschziner and has been published by St. Martin's Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-02-22 with Medical categories.
"Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning-the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance-is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves and, in most cases, completely out of our control... Guy Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals he's worked with in his practice, like one man who actually "tasted" words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have played havoc, not only with their view of the world, but with their relationships as well."--
Wednesday Is Indigo Blue
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Author : Richard E. Cytowic
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2011-09-30
Wednesday Is Indigo Blue written by Richard E. Cytowic and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-09-30 with Science categories.
How the extraordinary multisensory phenomenon of synesthesia has changed our traditional view of the brain. A person with synesthesia might feel the flavor of food on her fingertips, sense the letter “J” as shimmering magenta or the number “5” as emerald green, hear and taste her husband's voice as buttery golden brown. Synesthetes rarely talk about their peculiar sensory gift—believing either that everyone else senses the world exactly as they do, or that no one else does. Yet synesthesia occurs in one in twenty people, and is even more common among artists. One famous synesthete was novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who insisted as a toddler that the colors on his wooden alphabet blocks were “all wrong.” His mother understood exactly what he meant because she, too, had synesthesia. Nabokov's son Dmitri, who recounts this tale in the afterword to this book, is also a synesthete—further illustrating how synesthesia runs in families. In Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, pioneering researcher Richard Cytowic and distinguished neuroscientist David Eagleman explain the neuroscience and genetics behind synesthesia's multisensory experiences. Because synesthesia contradicted existing theory, Cytowic spent twenty years persuading colleagues that it was a real—and important—brain phenomenon rather than a mere curiosity. Today scientists in fifteen countries are exploring synesthesia and how it is changing the traditional view of how the brain works. Cytowic and Eagleman argue that perception is already multisensory, though for most of us its multiple dimensions exist beyond the reach of consciousness. Reality, they point out, is more subjective than most people realize. No mere curiosity, synesthesia is a window on the mind and brain, highlighting the amazing differences in the way people see the world.
Synesthesia
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Author : Richard E. Cytowic
language : en
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Release Date : 2012-12-06
Synesthesia written by Richard E. Cytowic and has been published by Springer Science & Business Media this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-12-06 with Psychology categories.
Synesthesia comes from the Greek syn (meaning union) and aisthesis (sensation), literally interpreted as a joining of the senses. Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information from one sense is joined or accompanies a perception in another. Dr. Cytowic reports extensive research into the physical, psychological, neural, and familial background of a group of synesthets. His findings form the first complete picture of the brain mechanisms that underlie this remarkable perceptual experience. His research demonstrates that this rare condition is brain-based and perceptual and not mind-based, as is the case with memory or imagery. Synesthesia offers a unique and detailed study of a condition which has confounded scientists for more than 200 years.
Curious Behavior
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Author : Robert R. Provine
language : en
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Release Date : 2012-08-31
Curious Behavior written by Robert R. Provine and has been published by Harvard University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-08-31 with Science categories.
Robert Provine boldly goes where other scientists seldom tread—in search of hiccups, coughs, yawns, sneezes, and other lowly, undignified human behaviors. Upon investigation, these instinctive acts bear the imprint of our evolutionary origins and can be uniquely valuable tools for understanding how the human brain works and what makes us different from other species. Many activities showcased in Curious Behavior are contagious, but none surpasses yawning in this regard—just reading the word can make one succumb. Though we often take it as a sign of sleepiness or boredom, yawning holds clues to the development of our sociality and ability to empathize with others. Its inescapable transmission reminds us that we are sometimes unaware, neurologically programmed beasts of the herd. Other neglected behaviors yield similar revelations. Tickling, we learn, may be the key to programming personhood into robots. Coughing comes in musical, medical, and social varieties. Farting and belching have import for the evolution of human speech. And prenatal behavior is offered as the strangest exhibit of all, defying postnatal logic in every way. Our earthiest acts define Homo sapiens as much as language, bipedalism, tool use, and other more studied characteristics. As Provine guides us through peculiarities right under our noses, he beckons us to follow with self-experiments: tickling our own feet, keeping a log of when we laugh, and attempting to suppress yawns and sneezes. Such humble investigations provide fodder for grade school science projects as well as doctoral dissertations. Small Science can yield big rewards.
The Man Who Forgot How To Read
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Author : Howard Engel
language : en
Publisher: Macmillan
Release Date : 2008-07-08
The Man Who Forgot How To Read written by Howard Engel and has been published by Macmillan this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008-07-08 with Biography & Autobiography categories.
The remarkable journey of an award-winning writer struck with a rare and devastating affliction that prevented him from reading even his own writing One hot midsummer morning, novelist Howard Engel picked up his newspaper from his front step and discovered he could no longer read it. The letters had mysteriously jumbled themselves into something that looked like Cyrillic one moment and Korean the next. While he slept, Engel had experienced a stroke and now suffered from a rare condition called alexia sine agraphia, meaning that while he could still write, he could no longer read. Over the next several weeks in hospital and in rehabilitation, Engel discovered that much more was affected than his ability to read. His memory failed him, and even the names of old friends escaped his tongue. At first geography eluded him: he would know that two streets met somewhere in the city, but he couldn't imagine where. Apples and grapefruit now looked the same. When he returned home, he had trouble remembering where things went and would routinely ?nd cans of tuna in the dishwasher and jars of pencils in the freezer. Despite his disabilities, Engel prepared to face his dilemma. He contacted renowned neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks for advice and visited him in New York City, forging a lasting friendship. He bravely learned to read again. And in the face of tremendous obstacles, he triumphed in writing a new novel. An absorbing and uplifting story, filled with sly wit and candid insights, The Man Who Forgot How to Read will appeal to anyone fascinated by the mysteries of the mind, on and off the page.
Drunk On All Your Strange New Words
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Author : Eddie Robson
language : en
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date : 2022-06-28
Drunk On All Your Strange New Words written by Eddie Robson and has been published by Tordotcom this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-06-28 with Fiction categories.
Eddie Robson's Drunk on All Your Strange New Words is a locked room mystery in a near future world of politics and alien diplomacy. Lydia works as translator for the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. They work well together, even if the act of translating his thoughts into English makes her somewhat wobbly on her feet. She’s not the agency’s best translator, but what else is she going to do? She has no qualifications, and no discernible talent in any other field. So when tragedy strikes, and Lydia finds herself at the center of an intergalactic incident, her future employment prospects look dire—that is, if she can keep herself out of jail! But Lydia soon discovers that help can appear from the most unexpected source... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Bitter In The Mouth
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Author : Monique Truong
language : en
Publisher: Random House
Release Date : 2012-04-30
Bitter In The Mouth written by Monique Truong and has been published by Random House this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-04-30 with Fiction categories.
Growing up in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in the '70s and '80s, Linda Hammerick knows that she is different. She has strong, almost paralysing associations between words and tastes; she doesn't look like everyone else; and she isn't popular at school. She finds her way through life with the help of her great uncle 'Baby' Harper, who loves her and loves to dance, and her best friend fat-thin-fat Kelly with whom she has been exchanging letters since they were seven. But then a tragedy and a revelation will make her question everything she thought she knew about herself and her family.