Autism. ASD. As soon as you hear the words, there’s a hushed response. Or a huge outcry. First, the outbreak was claimed to be the result of inoculations. WRONG! Now, it seems that the penchant in America to ‘wait to have kids’ is taking its toll. Because the older the father, the more likely the child can be born with diseases such as autism and schizophrenia.
Tag Archives: Electroencephalography
Free Will… or Free Won’t?
It’s the advent of Elul (which means “searching” in Aramaic; it’s an acronym in Hebrew for “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine”), the last month of the year (in my calendar), which begins the two month period of accounting and preparation. [Ed: This was written a few weeks ago.] It’s the end of our spiritual new year. This means it’s time to reflect on the year, what I plan to do next year, and to make amends should I have offended some… Which means we need to consider whether or not this was all fore-ordained; in other words, is there free will or not?
When is a Seizure an Emergency?
The first time- and almost every time- you see someone have a seizure, you are frightened. Especially if it’s your child. You want someone to DO SOMETHING. But, some seizures are best left to their own courses, and some need intervention. Physicians will tell you they determine the severity of a seizure by how long it lasts- but that’s not a clinically responsible answer. Seizures are more severe when brainwaves are suppressed- but that requires EEG measurements, which require tons of sensors about the scalp and head. And, these are virtually impossible to wear all the time and typically would not survive a seizure, anyway.
Go with the flow?
Yesterday, we spoke about DBS (deep brain stimulation). Today, we’ll talk about a different kind of brain stimulation- tCDS (trans-cranial direct current stimulation). The goal of tCDS is to develop a feeling of “effortless” concentration, associated with outstanding performance. This feeling is called the “flow” in the vernacular. Before you decide to “go with the flow”, you have to understand that we don’t quite have it “nailed down”, either.
Organ Donor
This is not going to be a happy blog. Because we have been let down- big time.
I had known, since I was a young man, that I was not allowed to donate my organs, should I reach an untimely (or timely) death. My religion forbids the defilement of a corpse. Until 1986, when the Chief Sfardi Rabbi (Ovadya Yosef) issued a proclamation…It would be permissible to donate one’s organs to save another’s life- actually, it was an honor for the dead. (The principles are called Pikuach Nefesh [the obligation to save someone in peril] and Kavod Hamet [honoring the dead].). You may not recognize how radical this was- it turned 5000+ years of tradition and rabbinic rulings on its head.