Page 177 - (DK) How to be a GENIUS?

mary
Surgical precisionn Primary
motor cortex
nsory
Thanks to three-dimensional computer-aided Premotor Primary sens
cortex x
guidance systems, brain surgeonss can reach cortex Sensory
ry
fr frontal
ation
damaged areas without harming nearby Prefr associat
n
c c cortex cortex
l
tissues. They can operate precisely with
the aid of remote-controlled microscopes—
o
Visu ual
shown in use here—and fiber-optic lighting. asso ociation
ex
Broc c ca’s corte
r ar rea
Primary y visual
cortex
Primary
or ory cortex
auditor
Auditory
assoc c ciation cortex Wernicke’s
area
area
area
Dis ng
scovery and learnin
When a brain surg geon operates on a patient’s brain, t he
area that is affected i is precisely located and recorded. As
s a
result, we now under rstand a lot more about the function of
various parts o he
of the brain, and this has increased t
acy and effectiveness of brain surge
accura ry.
Radiotherapy
r
Some brain disease can be
treated by therapies that don’t
involve cutting into the brain.
They include radiotherapy,
which uses a beam of
e
o
radiation to destroy the
cells that cause cancerous
e
b
brain tumors. The beam
e
is precisely targeted on
the basis of a computer
p
simulation, as seen here
s
(right). It is painless but
has to be repeated
m
several times.
Hippocrates
Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who
lived from around 460–370 B.C.E., wrote
many texts on brain surgery. He described
mental problems such as seizures and
spasms, recognized the symptoms of
head injuries, and operated on patients
with certain types of skull fractures.

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