2016
Je marche à côté de moi,
jane MAPPIN danse
25th and 26th November, 8:00 PM
Théâtre Rouge du Conservatoire, 4750, avenue Henri-Julien
Billeterie du Conservatoire 514.873.4031 poste 313 www.admission.com
With the trilogy Je marche à côté de moi, Jane Mappin has created a startlingly vivid gestural language, precise and compassionate, to convey the wordless anguish of mental illness. Her performance, infused simultaneously with intimacy and detachment, manifests the profound ambivalence of a world forever at odds with itself in the face of madness; while Daniel Firth is nothing short of astonishing in the subtlety and power he brings to the embodiment of a yearning, stricken man.
Arthur Holden, playwright
The Wounded Brain Healed
The Golden Age of the Montreal Neurological Institute, 1934-1984
Published May 2016
By William Feindel and Richard Leblanc
Published for the Montreal Neurological Institute
The Wounded Brain Healed by William Feindel and Richard Leblanc, covers a period when EEG was developed as a useful clinical tool, mesial temporal sclerosis was described, and the role of the hippocampus and amygdala in temporal lobe epilepsy was discovered. It was a time when the structure-function relationship of the cerebral cortex was ascertained, the supplementary motor area was discovered, and the relationship of handedness to cerebral dominance was established. The hippocampus was found to be the site of short-term memory and the concept of the plurality of memory was formulated. Computed tomography scanning, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic resonance spectroscopy and positron emission tomography were introduced to North America, among other technological advances. Read more
2015
Oliver Sacks (1933-2015)
Neurologist and best selling author Oliver Sacks passed away at the age of 82 on August 30th, 2015. His autobiography "On the Move: A Life" had been published only 5 months earlier in April. The New York Times has referred to Sacks as the "the poet laureate of medicine". Read Sacks' memoir or revisit one of his many books exploring the world of brain disorders.
2014
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons
Published May 6, 2014
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery by Sam Kean is an exploration through time of neurological curiosities (with many pages highlighting the career and discoveries of Wilder Penfield).
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
Published August 19, 2014
Neuroscience and “self-help” meet in this book by McGill’s own Dr. Daniel Levitin from the Department of Psychology. Through the latest cognitive neuroscience research, Dr. Levitin explains how the mind organizes, allowing readers to gain mastery in managing various aspects of their lives: including time, the workplace and even the kitchen drawer at home. Read more: Boston Globe Review Amazon.com
Suspicious Minds:
How Culture Shapes Madness
Published July 21, 2014
In this book, Joel and Ian Gold explore how mental illness is molded by culture. True stories, such as how one of Dr. Joel Gold's patients believes his life is broadcast around the world as in the movie The Truman Show, in conjunction with the latest research, shed light on the delusional brain. Ian Gold (of McGill's Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry) is the Canada Research Chair in Philosophy and Psychiatry. NY Magazine Review
Play it again, Sam
18 March 2014
Research from McGill reveals that the brain’s motor network helps people remember and recognize music that they have performed in the past better than music they have only heard. A recent study by Prof. Caroline Palmer of the Department of Psychology sheds new light on how humans perceive and produce sounds, and may pave the way for investigations into whether motor learning could improve or protect memory or reduce cognitive impairment in aging populations.
William Feindel (1918-2014)
14 January 2014
The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University and the McGill University Health Centre regretfully announced the death of William Feindel, O.C., G.O.Q., MDCM, D. Phil., one of Canada's most distinguished neurosurgeons and The Neuro’s third director on Jan 14, 2104.
Read Dr. Feindel's essays in his book "Images of the Neuro" >
2013
In Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work
by Rita Levi-Montalcini
(April 22, 1909 - Dec 20, 2012)
Levi-Montalcini's lifestory is a true inspiration in 'the beauty of imperfection' and persistance in the most difficult circumstances. This combination brought Levi-Montalcini to be the fourth woman in history to receive the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1986).
Building Brains
14 January 2013
Recipient of the Friesen Prize in Health Science Research, Dr. Marc Tessier-Lavigne identified important mechanisms for the formation of the normal human brain, which ultimately opened new frontiers in the world of neuro-degeneration, and spinal chord injuries. He talks with Paul Kennedy.
Imagination, Part 1 & 2
6 February 2013
The poet William Blake claimed that the imagination is central to our perception and experience of reality. More than 200 years later, scientific research on the brain and creativity confirms the great poet's insight. Listen on CBC Radio Ideas with Paul Kennedy >
A Word to the Wise,
Part 1 & 2
8 March 2013
Times have changed. So has the study of wisdom. Philosophers, make room for the scientists! In this two-part series, Marilyn Powell talks to psychologists, sociologists, neuroscientists - and the wise that dwell among us - about a very old topic. What they have discovered about the nature of wisdom and being wise will enlighten and surprise you.
Listen to Part 1 on CBC Radio Ideas >
Touching a Nerve: The Self as Brain
30 July 2013
This book by Patricia S. Churchland is a philosopher’s exploration of the latest brain science—and its ethical and practical implications. Link to the New York Times review here.
2012
March 2012
The age of insight : the quest to understand the unconscious in art, mind, and brain : from Vienna 1900 to the present
A brilliant book by Nobel Prize winner Eric R. Kandel
Recommended by Dr. Kathleen Cullen, The Age of Insight takes us to Vienna 1900, where leaders in science, medicine, and art began a revolution that changed forever how we think about the human mind—our conscious and unconscious thoughts and emotions—and how mind and brain relate to art.
Artist Chuck Close:
My Life as a Rolling Neurological Clinic
Dialogues between Neuroscience and Society 2012.
Watch & listen > (YouTube)