Jill Bolte Taylor's video "My Stroke of Insight"

In this brief and facinating video laced with humor, Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher and National Alliance on Mental Illness advocate, talks about her experience as both a scientist and as a stroke victim and what she was able to learn about how the brain functions by observing the progression of her own stroke. At one point in her video she shows us a real brain. Though I've seen many illustrations of the brain in my studies and career, this presentation made it very clear how separate the two hemispheres of our brains are. True, the hemispheres are connected by a small amount of brain tissue, called the corpus collosum, but they are otherwise separate and process information very differently. Ms Bolte Taylor points out that we have the power to choose which of the hemispheres we will be in at any given time and asks us to consider which one we choose and when. Our choice makes a difference in how we understand and respond to ourselves and the world around us. If you are interested as I am in how your brain functions and what that functioning might mean for you, you can watch her video by clicking on the link below. I believe it is definitely worth watching.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/