“Is he still there, somewhere we can’t reach?” For many people whose loved ones are in a vegetative state, this might be one of the most asked questions. For doctors and researchers studying human consciousness, this is always a hard question to answer. Thanks to the development in methods of neuroimaging, we are now able to detect awareness in some patients who used to be thought of having no consciousness. Furthermore, these advanced techniques also indicate revision in medical terminology and the care of those patients in a vegetative state.

Historically termed “hysteria” and thought to be a physical manifestation of disordered emotions, little is known about the mystery that is conversion disorder (5). In the seventeenth century, some individuals with unexplained paralysis, blindness or “fits” (seizures) were thought to have been involved with witchcraft and were burned at the stake (2). Nowadays, these symptoms are considered relatively common and oftentimes debilitating. Although not much is known about conversion disorder, it seems possible that the neurological processes responsible for its development are related to those involved in anxiety and depression disorders.

Hysteria!

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The face of mental health in the Western world has certainly changed throughout time and history, revealing its fluid nature.  Mental illnesses have continuously been defined, redefined, disregarded, categorized, recategorized, and rated according to the perceived needs of a community of patients.  In the New York Times article The Americanization of Mental Illness, Watters explains that changes in the expression of mental health and illness across global cultures are due to, “…those who minister to the mentally ill – doctors or shamans or priests – inadvertently help to select which symptoms will be recognized as legitimate.”   The key word here in ‘inadvertently.’ What does Watters mean when

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            As someone who is studying in Japanese at Haverford College, I have always found language and its relationship with the brain interesting. I have always wondered what gives humans the ability to comprehend language and I have always wondered how this ability is different from any other animal’s ability to interpret sound. I have additionally wondered how the ability to hear could affect language comprehension. In other words, is having that “input mechanism” really necessary for understanding and creating spoken language?

 The human nervous system is made up of three overall types of neuronal connections. These connections link sensory neurons to the rest of the nervous system, the nervous system to motor neurons, or neurons within the nervous system to other neurons in the nervous system. Inter-neuronal connections are by far the most numerous of all connections in the nervous system, while sensory neuron connections are relatively sparse. Because of this disproportionate number of connection types, it is essential that the human brain be able to derive complex reactions from very few sensory inputs. The link between olfaction and memory provides a truly remarkable example of this ability. Olfa

Herman Marcia

Professor Grobstein 

Neurobiology and Behavior