As regular readers may recall, Dr. Steven Schlozman is an expert on zombies. In teaching people about zombies, he also teaches about the human brain. I see he now has a book deal. That book, I cannot wait to read! From "Steven Schlozman, zombie expert" (Courier-Journal):
Steven Schlozman is an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and a child psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital. He's also the world's preeminent scholar on the neurology of zombies.
Yes, zombies. The ghoulish re-animated dead that obsess with nothing besides eating the brains of the living.
Schlozman stumbled into this role after volunteering, half-jokingly, to give a lecture on the neurology of zombies during a film event in Cambridge, Mass. The next thing Schlozman knew, he was a psychiatrist with a zombie book deal.
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So, in a nutshell, can you explain zombie neurology to me?
I tried to figure out if there were zombies — because I like zombie movies a lot — what would zombie brains look like, and what regions of the brain would be especially doing well, and what regions of the brain wouldn't do well. ... [T]here's something wrong with their cerebellum because they walk like they're drunk. The cerebellum is the region of the brain that allows for balance, allows for you to walk with a normal gait.
Past posts on Schlozman and our brains:
- All you need to know about your brain can be learned in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD
- A fun and very novel way to learn about your brain
Note: (Added November 13, 2010): More about how we can learn from zombie brains about our own
Zombie Stagger: The cerebellum and basal ganglia, the areas of the brain that regulate balance and fluid motion, could be responsible for the zombies' clumsiness, Schlozman said. And damage to these areas could explain why they stagger so ungracefully toward their prey. He adds that many people are experiencing a temporary impairment of their cerebellum when they drunkenly stumble out of a bar.
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Zombie Rage: The amygdala, the brain's primal emotion center, is where emotions like rage are first registered. Then, typically, the anterior cingulate cortex steps in and dampens the signals from the amygdala. In zombies, Schlozman said, the amygdala appears to have run amok, causing hyperaggression.
Zombie Stupidity: Finally, zombies appear to have a
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Image credit: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid.
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