Neurologist Oliver Sacks discusses his newest book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Dr. Sacks is the author of 10 books, including "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat." A leading figure in the field of neurological science, his work was chronicled in the acclaimed film "Awakenings" starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.- Dominican University
Dominican University of California is an independent university of Catholic heritage located 12 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California. Founded in 1890 by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, Dominican enjoys a century-long reputation for excellence in scholarship, research, and community outreach. The University offers more than 60 programs of study that reflect the diversity and creativity of the faculty and students. With almost 2,000 graduate and undergraduate students and a student to faculty ratio of 11:1, Dominican is able to successfully blend personal direction associated with smaller schools with the academic resources of a larger university.
Bio
Afshin Gharib
Dr. Gharib's research interests include the cognitive and neural mechanisms of associative learning - focusing on the role of attention, timing, and response learning in operant conditioning - and age-related changes in learning and memory. He is particularly interested in the effectiveness of antioxidants in reversing age associated declines in cognition. His teaching interests include Introduction to Psychology, Physiological Psychology, and Statistics and Research Methods.
Denise Lucy
Dr. Denise Lucy is a Professor of Business and Organizational Studies and Executive Director, Institute of Leadership Studies and Emerita Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean at Dominican University of California. Dr. Lucy is an expert in leadership and organizational change. She has 25 years experience in higher education as an educator and executive; first at the University of San Francisco and currently at Dominican University of California since 1993.
As a professional manager and as a faculty member, Dr. Lucy's expertise areas are in leadership and team development, management, strategic planning, facilitative leadership, organizational change systems, and conflict resolution. Her research interests include leadership and team development, community leadership/civic engagement and corporate social responsibility. Dr. Lucy is the Chair of the Marin Education Fund Board of Directors and is co-President of the Pt. San Pedro Coalition. She is a co-founder of Dominican's Green Task Force and committed to environmental sustainability education.
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks, a physician and author, has been called “the poet laureate of medicine” by The New York Times. His books and essays, including The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, are used in schools and universities around the world. He is also the author of Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, and a forthcoming book, The Mind’s Eye.
In his books, Sacks describes patients struggling to live with brain conditions ranging from Tourette’s syndrome to autism, Parkinsonism, phantom limb syndrome, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. His book Awakenings inspired a play by Harold Pinter and also the Oscar-nominated feature film with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams. His essays regularly appear in the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books, as well as various medical journals.
Sacks is professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine.
Medical specialty concerned with nervous system function and disorders. Clinical neurology began in the mid-19th century, when mapping of the functional areas of the brain first began and understanding of the causes of conditions such as epilepsy improved. The development of electroencephalography in the 1920s aided in the diagnosis of neurological disease, as did the development of computerized axial tomography in the 1970s and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging in the 1980s. In addition to dealing with physical disorders (e.g., tumours, trauma), neurology is unique among medical specialties in its intersection with psychiatry. Greater understanding of the brain chemistry of disorders such as schizophrenia and depression has led to a wide array of effective drugs that nevertheless work best in conjunction with psychotherapy. Side effects of drug or surgical therapy can be serious, and many nervous system disorders have no effective treatment.