The Island of the Colorblind and the Cycad Island

The Island of the Colorblind and the Cycad Island by Oliver Sacks

Rare genetic traits may become prominent in isolated populations with significant intermarriage. Deafness became common in Martha's Vineyard thanks to two founders that had a recessive gene. In Micronesia, there is an island (Pingelap) many people are achronotopes. This trait occurred due to a population bottleneck. Colorblindness can be a nerve or a an eye issue. In Micronesia, the colorblind have difficulty seeing during the day, but actually have a better ability to see at night. The book also explores cycads. These seeds are fairly poisonous. However, are consumed after processing to remove the poison. Could this result in some neurological problems? The book covers some interesting topics, but it wanders a bit, with parts travel, genetic and neurological.

Letters

Letters by Oliver Sacks

As per the title, this is a posthumously published collection of letters written by Oliver Sacks. He was a prolific letter writer. There are a mixture of different types of communication. Some are personal letters that deal more with his experience in life. Others are more science focussed, responding to concerns about research and publications. Through the letters, we can learn about the unfolding of Sack's career. He is concerned with the "mechanical" approach to medicine. He doesn't want to treat everybody as a statistics, but wants to explore the person to reach a solution. He has done work with people with neurological conditions. Some may appear commotose, but can be awakened. Others are essentially "dead", but kept alive mechanically. Drugs can help those with Parkinson's, but they may also have negative side effects. He does not believe there is a possible "miracle drug". He has struggles with medical bureaucracy and education. His Jewish background and sexuality come out at various times in his life - especially near the end as he is diagnosed with cancer. It makes for an interesting "biography" told all from primary sources.

On the Move: A Life

Oliver Sacks was a gay motorcycle-riding author who happened to be an accomplished neurologist. On the Move is a history of his life. He spent time as a drug addict, motorcyclist and bodybuilder before focussing on his medical career. From a young age, he found that he had a talent for writing. In college, he was near the bottom of his class, yet won a prestigious award due to his skills writing on scientific topics. He came from a family of doctors, and was steered towards medical school. (I have a suspicion he would have had a very different career otherwise.)

After medical school, he went to the United States. He tolerated the east coast, but fell in love with California. He lived much of his adult life in America, but remained a British citizen. He grew up at a time when being homosexual was a crime. He was somewhat active in the gay scene in his youth, but had a multi-decade period of celibacy later in life. He also experimented with drugs and and recorded his experiences before giving up drugs and moving.

He has a very personal approach to his medical practice. He has written many works on his medical experiences that focus on the individual case histories. He writes about many patients in which he has had a closer relationship. He sought to know the whole patient. In some cases this allowed him to identified nuances of the diseases and treatments. He also treated himself as a patient, writing about some of the interesting conditions that he had experienced.  

Gratitude

Gratitude is a short work containing a few essays written by Oliver Sacks shortly before he passed away. He takes stake of his life and helps. He details finally taking a trip to Israel after shunning it for a long time, and finding he and his partner were warmly received. The overall work is very short and tends to serve the writer more than the reader.

The Minds Eye

In The Mind's Eye, Oliver Sacks explores some "interesting" cases of vision. Some people have lost the ability to read, while still having the ability to recognize letters and even write. In other cases, people don't have stereoscopic vision and can't make out the richness of the three dimensions. (And sometimes, like those who are color-blind, they may not recognize what they are missing.) Near the end of the book, the author details his own experience losing visual ability. He had cancer in his eye that caused him to lose all but peripheral vision in an eye, before losing everything. Finally, the book ends with "internal vision". Some blind people "see" and think in vivid images, while others that see do not have the "mind" images. Vision loss can also be different for various people. Vision as a whole is not a simple "on or off", but has many different aspects of physical and neurological ability. Since people only tend to know the way that they experience the world, it can be difficult to generalize a common experience.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat covers odd neurological conditions. The eponymous man was a music professor that could communicate great with music. However, visually he was lost. He could not tell the difference between his wife and a hat. He had difficulty with all things visual, but no problem with music. Another man was stuck in 1945. He would forget anything new that happened more than a minute ago. There were also tales of people that lost their sense of "self". A man would find a foreign leg in the bed and throw it out, only to throw himself out of a bed. A woman lost her sense of self, and only with great difficulty would force her body to move. However, unlike losing the sense of sight, she did not appear to be so disabled, and thus suffered from harassment from others. There is also the tale of twins that were very low on the intelligence meter, but could identify large primes and calculate the day of the week over thousand year time spans. One man used his nervous ticks to improvise on drumming. When medication helped him not have the ticks, he skipped taking it on weekends so he could continue to have the creative impulses.
With many of these people they have lost some basic ability that we see common, yet they still have other areas that they can contribute to society. We can help them to utilize their special talents. Society has this narrow understanding of "normal". We like to pride ourselves on accepting "differences". However, these differences seem to be in the narrow band of standard behavior. Some of the more extreme differences may make it much more difficult for us to interact with others. However, these could also provide positive experiences for the people and society as a whole.

Hallucinations

There are a number of different neural conditions that can cause hallucinations. Different senses can also be involved. Visual hallucinations are well documented. However, sound and smell also occur. People may be reluctant to admit to "hearing voices" for fear of being branded crazy. Some medical conditions such as migraines and epilepsy may be associated with hallucinations. They can also be triggered by drugs (including recreational ones as well as others lake that used to treat Parkinson's disease.) The author of Hallucinations did some self-experimentation with various drugs in the 50s, but found he had to stop before his "experimentation" started creating problems in his life.
Hallucinations are usually outside the control of the person. Somebody may see people multiple or hear people where there are none. With some, it is common to see hallucinations based on past experiences. Musical notes appearing randomly seems to be a fairly common manifestation for those that spend a great deal of time reading music.
Some religious experiences may be scientifically explained as types of hallucinations. (If God works through natural means, then this could be a logical means that are used.) A final type of hallucination covered is "false limbs". People often "feel" a limb still present even after it has been amputated. However, when they start to lose other sensual confirmation, they gradually lose control of it. This can be counteracted by seeing visual confirmation of the activities (by a prothesis or other tricks.)
The book has a somewhat random assortment of stories and descriptions of cases where people's senses show them something that is not actually there, and seems to be written primarily to entertain.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Musicophilia explores the odd place of music in human neurological development. Oliver Sacks is a neurologist with a keen interest in music. He has may personal tales of the special roles that music plays in patients' lives, as well as many other stories from others. Most of the book is filled with anecdotes, with brief bits describing some of the science and research behind the human relationship with music.

The anecdotes include people struck by lightning who suddenly develop a keen desire for music, as well as others who suddenly lose the ability to appreciate music. Perfect pitch is described as both a blessing and a curse (switch the key and the song sounds totally wrong.) Music "ability" and music "appreciation" are different, with one not necessarily implying the other.

The special place of music therapy is also discussed. Some people with acute dementia may seem to have lost the ability to remember things from even a few minutes ago. Yet, they still have the ability to sing and appreciate songs.

This book is filled with many more interesting anecdotes. It allows for a nice quick read without getting bogged down in too much detail.