WoW Blog

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a trained and published neuroanatomist who specializes in the postmortem investigation of the human brain. Dr. Taylor became a brain scientist because she has a mentally ill brother who suffers from delusions. She served from 1994 - 1997 on the board of directors of the national NAMI organization (National Alliance on Mental Illness), and currently she serves as President of the Greater Bloomington Affiliate of NAMI.

Her successful career was almost cut short on December 10, 1996. Dr. Jill Taylor woke up to discover that she was experiencing a rare form of stroke, an arterio-venous malformation (AVM). "One night I went to bed able-bodied and woke up handicapped. It happened that quickly, as it can to anyone who has a stroke. Some people are totally immobilized, and others recover completely." As a brain scientist, Dr Jill Bolte Taylor realized she had a ringside seat to her own stroke and she watched as her brain functions shut down one by one: motion, speech, memory, self-awareness...Three weeks later, on December 27, 1996, she underwent major brain surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) to remove a golf ball size hemorrhage that was placing pressure on the language centers in the left hemisphere of her brain.

Dr. Taylor has been successfully rebuilding her brain, recovering her ability to think, walk and talk - from the inside out. She has become a spokesperson for stroke recovery and for the possibility of coming back from brain injury stronger than before. In response to the swelling and trauma of the stroke which placed pressure on her dominant left hemisphere, the functions of her right hemisphere have blossomed. Among other things, she now creates and sells unique stained glass brains. In addition she published a book about her recovery from stroke and the insights she gained into the workings of her brain titled, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor now teaches at the medical school at Indiana University, which she attended as an undergraduate. As the National Spokesperson for the Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center (Harvard Brain Bank), she travels the country as the Singin' Scientist. She is the consulting neuroanatomist for the Midwest Proton Radiotherapy Institute.

"How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I've gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career."

-Jill Bolte Taylor

Read a complimentary story about strokes here on CR4:

http://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/5936/Break-on-Through-to-the-Other-Side

Resources

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25brain.html?em&ex=1212120000&en=72f0660cfb53889d&ei=5087%0A

http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/203

http://drjilltaylor.com/

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1733748_1733754_1735155,00.html

Watch a video of Jill explaining her stroke here:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/229