Popular culture: August 2011 Archives
A peculiar kind of living agony must be had by those who are diagnosed with psyche-robbing disorders, like Alzheimer's disease, while they remain aware that they're being robbed of whatever makes them them. A recent case in point is that of Pat Summitt, legendary coach of the UT women's basketball team, who was recently diagnosed with early-onset AD.In this Washington Post clip (along with a funny and moving write-up by the coach's friend and the coauthor of Summitt's 1999 autobiography), there are subtle, but definite, halts in Summitt's speech that hint at her early, mental disability—which troubled family (primarily her incredibly stalwart son), friends, and UT colleagues early on and ultimately brought Summitt to the attention of physicians at the Mayo Clinic—where she received her diagnosis 3 months ago.
Photo of Summitt on one of many of her days of basketball victory; from the UT website.
What goes around certainly comes around on the web (or Facebook [same difference]). The latest, at least in my web-based microcosm, is a 1-year-old reference to a 2010 article from Neurosurgery, in which a couple of eggheads from Johns Hopkins argued their case for hidden neuroanatomy in Michaelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings.
What the JH authors* are receiving implied credit for, though, in online posts and forums (see here, for example) is a compelling proposal that a sagittal view of the brain, complete with brainstem and vertebral artery, surrounds God in the Creation of Adam (above). But that argument was originally made (and the JH authors did acknowledge this in their 2010 Neurosurgery article) by Meshberger way back in 1990 (An interpretation of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam based on neuroanatomy. JAMA. 1990;264:1837-1841).
What the JH authors proposed last year, riffing on the hidden-anatomy-in-Michelangelo's-painting theme, was a much more complex, ventral view of the brainstem in God's neck in The Separation of Light From Darkness (below). It's a less compelling argument, IMO, but one that remains plausible. Even less convincing, however, was their proposal that the artist embedded an image of the optic nerves in God's robe (read the free article to make your own judgment).
A popular, diverting hobby seems to be the hunt for hidden anatomic elements in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel works (which is somewhat more highbrow than the hunt for horsies in clouds...but just somewhat). Eknoyan, a nephrologist at Baylor, argued in 2000 that the artist, who suffered with renal stones, surrounded God with a big kidney (not a brain) in the panel Separating Light From Darkness. (It may well be that God's environment is dependent on the medical specialty of the viewer.) And two Brazilian physicians, Barreto and Oliveira, have written an entire book (but in Portuguese) on hidden anatomy in Michelangelo''s work.
* One of whom has a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. (There's a department for that?)
What the JH authors* are receiving implied credit for, though, in online posts and forums (see here, for example) is a compelling proposal that a sagittal view of the brain, complete with brainstem and vertebral artery, surrounds God in the Creation of Adam (above). But that argument was originally made (and the JH authors did acknowledge this in their 2010 Neurosurgery article) by Meshberger way back in 1990 (An interpretation of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam based on neuroanatomy. JAMA. 1990;264:1837-1841). What the JH authors proposed last year, riffing on the hidden-anatomy-in-Michelangelo's-painting theme, was a much more complex, ventral view of the brainstem in God's neck in The Separation of Light From Darkness (below). It's a less compelling argument, IMO, but one that remains plausible. Even less convincing, however, was their proposal that the artist embedded an image of the optic nerves in God's robe (read the free article to make your own judgment).
A popular, diverting hobby seems to be the hunt for hidden anatomic elements in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel works (which is somewhat more highbrow than the hunt for horsies in clouds...but just somewhat). Eknoyan, a nephrologist at Baylor, argued in 2000 that the artist, who suffered with renal stones, surrounded God with a big kidney (not a brain) in the panel Separating Light From Darkness. (It may well be that God's environment is dependent on the medical specialty of the viewer.) And two Brazilian physicians, Barreto and Oliveira, have written an entire book (but in Portuguese) on hidden anatomy in Michelangelo''s work.* One of whom has a joint appointment in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. (There's a department for that?)
