[lit-ideas] stages of brain death and evolution
- From: Eric Yost <NYCEric@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 02 Jan 2005 02:23:55 -0500
Physicians can use clinical methods to assess brain death in patients
with gunshots and acute encephalitis. There are stages of brain death,
and postures (gravitational orientations) common to the stages mirror
the evolutionary depth of the affected areas. Someone going through
brain death, for whatever reasons, recapitulates postures for each stage:
Decortication: when the cortex dies, patients assume grasping positions
very much like a lower primate holding on to a tree limb, grasping
clenched hands locked at shoulder level or higher.
Decerebration: when these brain centers go, the patient assumes a more
horse-like stance, hands flat-palmed, pushing downward, as though to
walk on all fours.
As a brain deconstructs, it produces postures that recapitulate the
lower evolutionary structures. The human goes, and the patient is in the
posture of a monkey or lemur; the monkey goes, and the patient is in the
posture of a quadruped.
Doesn't it almost seem like a physical proof of the evolutionary make-up
of our brains, in reverse, in terminal encephalopathy?
A friend (MD in local ER) explained this to me, and it made me wonder
why it hadn't been commented on in philosophy. Apparently, so my friend
tells me, it has been the subject of many medical papers, but it's not
the kind of thing laypeople usually get to know.
Redundant in brain death,
Eric
PS: Sending this to both lists because it seems particularly intriguing.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] stages of brain death and evolution
