Regarding Dr. Olaf

Old Brains and Mental Illness

2012-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

Just came across this very interesting piece by Virginia Hughes in Scientific American about the Indiana Medical History Museum, formerly the pathology department of the Central Indiana Hospital for the Insane, and now back in the news because of a frustrating "dearth of postmortem brain donations from people with mental illness." The solution? Mining genetic information from "old, often forgotten tissue archives".

Though studying old brains is not without challenges, the tissue is free from modern psychiatric drugs, and is, in the words of John Allman, a professor of biology at the California Institute of Technology, "an untapped resource."

To read the entire story, see Shelf-Preservation: Researchers Tap Century-Old Brain Tissue for Clues to Mental Illness

If someone slipped you valium...

2011-12-07T20:03:00.000-08:00

This week's New Yorker contains an article by Michael Specter that I was compelled to read at once. The topic? Placebos. In this fascinating piece, Specter offers important details such as:

In most cases, the larger the pill, the stronger the plecebo effect. Two pills are better than one, and brand-name pills trump generics. Capsules are generally more effective than pills, and injections produce a more pronounced effect than either.

And:

Thomas Jefferson... noted that 'one of the most successful physicians I have ever known has assured me that he used more bread pills, drops of coloured water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put together.'

And, perhaps my favorite, that doctors have found:

...that diazepam--more commonly known as Valium--has no discernible effect on anxiety unless a person knows he is taking it.

To read the article, see The Power of Nothing.

This is your brain on ayahuasca. Or is it?

2011-10-31T13:48:00.000-07:00

Reporting for New Scientist, Arran Frood brings us the results of a Brazilian study that looked at the brain activity of frequent users of ayahuasca, a tea prepared from a jungle vine and traditionally used by shamans. Researchers scanned the brains of subjects as they looked at images of people or animals, as they closed their eyes and imagined the object, and as they closed their eyes and imagined the objects after a dose of ayahuasca. The results?

...researchers found that neural activity in the primary visual cortex dropped off when volunteers imagined seeing the image rather than actually viewing it.

But when the team then gave the volunteers a dose of ayahuasca and repeated the experiment, they found that the level of activity in the primary visual cortex was virtually indistinguishable when the volunteers were really viewing an image and when they were imagining it. This means visions seen have a real, neurological basis, says de Araujo – they are not made up or imagined.

Evidently, the pharmacology of ayahuasca resembles that of some more conventional drugs for treating addiction, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Perhaps this Amazon concoction will join the ranks of LSD in tomorrow's medicine cabinet.
To read the entire story, see Drug hallucinations look real in the brain

The Brain on Magnets

2011-09-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Sure, we all know about lie-detector tests. But wouldn't it be easier to simply make sure no one lies to begin with? Talis Bachmann's team at the University of Tartu in Estoni thinks this might be possible. After applying transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)--which is involved in cognitive control--the team found that patients were more likely to be truthful.

Is it true? Judge for yourself: to read more see Powerful magnets hamper our ability to lie.

Hollywood on the brain

2011-08-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

Chris Colin brings us the story of Simon Lewis, a successful film producer who lost a "full third of his right hemisphere" after a terrifying car accident. Lewis fell into a deep coma, only to defy the odds against him by emerging from it a month later:

He would move into his parent' house that summer, 1994, but that was just the beginning of a seemingly endless medical journey. No sooner would he recuperate from one grueling surgery than he'd be back for another. The months turned to years. His recovery lasted a decade and a half.

And now? Lewis says he wants to make films again, incorporating some of the new ways he perceives the world (particularly "flat time" and "blind sight," which Colin describes in detail in his book) into his art. "He wanted to make different movies because he had a different brain inside his skull and a different way of experiencing the world," Colin writes. In Lewis' words:

Picture all the memories from your life as a photo album. Then take out all the photos and shuffle them across a table. That's my brain... It can be frustrating, but as far as making interesting connections goes, it certainly opens things up in a new way.

Will his movies be made? Only time will tell. But the story is an amazing one. To read an excerpt of the story in the Atlantic, see The Hollywood Producer Who Survived Catastrophe or buy the ebook (just 1.99) at Amazon.

The Queen is Dead: The Story of an Ancient Medicinal Tonic

2011-08-19T12:06:00.000-07:00

After two years studying the dessicated contents of Queen Hathshepsut's beauty cream, a team of researchers at the University of Bonn have concluded that a carcinogenic substance in the flask may have poisoned her.

The queen, who was evidently obese and suffered from diabetes and liver cancer as well as eczema, ruled Egypt 3,500 years ago. The cream contained palm and nutmeg oil and fatty acids that relieve skin irritations, as well as benzopyrene, a highly carcinogenic hydrocarbon.

For the full story, as well as a grizzly photograph of the queen herself, see Queen Hatshepsut, Ancient Egyptian Leader, Might Have Accidentally Poisoned Herself: Experts.

Good old-fashioned trepanation!

2011-08-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Bruce Bower over at Science News reports that a new study conducted by anthropologist Efthymia Nikita of the University of Cambridge in England has found that men were drilling pieces out of each other's skulls to treat wounds or cure other ailments. Over two-thousand years ago!

Nikita, who studied three skulls that once belonged to living men who resided in what is now southwest Libya, determined that the "dime- to quarter-sized holes inside hollowed-out areas, as well as scraped-out depressions" were not from "disease, bone-chewing animals, accidental falls or intentional blows." They are, instead, evidence of surgical procedures performed thousands of years ago.

I wonder if any female skulls have the same pattern of holes and depressions, or if trepanation was just something the boys did back then.

To read the entire article, see: Ancient Saharan head cases

Spontanteous Human Combustion: It's Ablaze!

2011-08-04T11:03:00.000-07:00

Do spontaneous human combustion events happen along some kind of geographical line? Has there been and will there be a "boom" in spontaneous human combustion cases? What is it like to combust spontaneously? These are just a few of the questions Larry E. Arnold, oft called the world's "foremost authority on the phenomenon" and author of Ablaze: The Mysterious Fires of Spontaneous Human Combustion addresses in this two and a half hour interview available here. In addition, his book promises "hundreds of unbelievable examples of The Fire Within, culled from long-forgotten obscure medical journals and never-before-published interviews with witnesses to the impossible." Sounds great!

The Art of the Brain

2011-07-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Ian Chant recently blogged about a "Brain-Art Competition," designed to help "recognize the beauty and creativity of artistic renderings emerging from the neuroimaging community."

Contest categories included: Best 3-Dimensional Brain Rendering, Best Representation of the Human Connectome, Best Abstract Brain Illustration, and Best Humorous Brain Illustration.

Some great images in here. Enjoy!

Urine makes a comeback!

2011-07-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

In the 1650s, it wasn't unheard of for doctors to diagnose disease based on observations of a patient's urine. What, exactly, were those doctors observing using the tools of the times? I'm not sure. However, recent research indicates that urine might be a better indicator than blood (today's standard) to diagnose diseases such as cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.

Using high-resolution Fourier transform mass spectrometry on urine samples collected from healthy subjects, researchers detected 1823 proteins (671 of which had never been previously reported in urine. Ninety percent of these were identified for the first time).

Akhilesh Pandey, who led the research team, says:

We have been able to identify some novel proteins which have implications in important diseases...These proteins are cathepsin L2 (CTSL2) linked to chronic kidney disease, sialyltransferase 1 (ST6GAL1) for acute childhood leukemia, insulin like growth factor binding protein 4 (IGFBP4) for prostate,ovarian and gastrointestinal cancers, mucin-like 1(MUCL1) for breast cancer, and neurocan (NCAN) for bipolar disorder.

To read the complete story, see Urine holds clue to deadly cancers.

The latest in medicinal tonics

2011-06-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

Do you suffer from chronic pain? panic attacks? crippling anxiety? Anneli Rufus reports that a cure may be on the way: Prescription LSD!

Leading this wave is the Boston-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS)... MAPS researchers have spent 15 years conducting international clinical trials whose results indicate that LSD and psilocybin counteract depression and anxiety and are effective pain-management tools while MDMA (ecstasy) conquers fear. Just this month, the Israeli Ministry of Health approved a new MAPS study using MDMA to treat PTSD.

Note that scientists are not saying that you can "recover by hitting a few raves." The drugs should instead be administered by professionals in "a safe, supportive, controlled setting."
To read the full story, see Why Prescription Ecstasy or LSD Could Happen Much Sooner Than You Think

Art and Brain Trauma?

2011-06-29T10:02:00.000-07:00

Reporting for the New York Times, Dr. Abigail Zuger tells the story of Jon Sarkin, a chiropractor in Massachusetts who was plagued by a "high-pitched screech" that doctors shrugged off as "a vague abonormality near a nerve at the base of the brain that controls hearing and balance."

Maddened by the ceaseless racket, Dr. Sarkin underwent surgery to correct the problem, only to wind up in a coma. The man who emerged from the coma bore little resemblance to the man who fell into it several months before.

He was physically delicate and walked with a cane, but that was the least of it. His personality had morphed into a difficult teenager's: self-centered, unreliable, obsessive.

He also began to draw. Now, twenty years later, he has become "a full-fledged artist of some renown" and has sold work to The New York Times Magazine as well a private collectors. What started as a shriek heard only by himself, became unexpectedly transformative.

Read more here.

Alive or dead? And the brain, of course

2011-05-20T11:39:00.000-07:00

A person is either alive, or dead, or... in a "middling state," which can be hard to decipher. According to Amber Dance's article for Nature, "Even when a team of doctors agree to diagnose a vegetative state, they have been shown to be wrong more than 40% of the time compared to the a standardized test, the Coma Recovery Scale."

In other words, when the going gets tough, we're not very good at determining whether someone is with us or not.

However, a new test, developed by Melanie Boly and her team at the University of Liège in Belgium, uses an electroencephalogram (EEG), to peer in at the brain, and the results suggest "that the key difference between minimally conscious and totally unconscious non-coma states is communication between the frontal cortex — the planning, thinking part of the brain — and the temporal cortex, where sounds and words are processed."

Here's more:

Boly and her colleagues...used EEG to measure electrical signals from the brains of 8 people in vegetative states, 13 in minimally conscious states and 22 healthy participants. The subjects were played a series of tones, which occasionally changed in pitch. The differing tone constituted a surprising event in the environment — something that the frontal cortex has to consider, so in all subjects the temporal cortex would send the frontal cortex a message.

In minimally conscious and healthy people the frontal cortex would then send a message back to the temporal cortex. The reason for this is uncertain; it may be to let the temporal cortex know what to expect in the future. But for people in a vegetative state, the communication was one-way: signals passed from the temporal to frontal area, but not back.

Interesting stuff. To read even more, see Test measures spark of consciousness

Grey matter turns blue!

2011-05-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

Boing Boing recently brought us news of the Blue Brain Project, which is, according to its website:

Reconstructing the brain piece by piece and building a virtual brain in a supercomputer—these are some of the goals of the Blue Brain Project. The virtual brain will be an exceptional tool giving neuroscientists a new understanding of the brain and a better understanding of neurological diseases.

The team has already successfully simulated a rat cortical column (evidently, there are about 100,000 such columns in the average rat brain). The human brain has more like two million (even more complex) columns.

Constructing a model of the human brain will require a fair amount of computing power:

Each simulated neuron requires the equivalent of a laptop computer. A model of the whole brain would have billions.

The technology of medicine marches forward!

For photos of the team and project, see Blue Brain Project: Build a virtual brain in a supercomputer.

It's all about the marketing

2011-05-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

The Scientist has a great story about William Helfand's medical poster collection, which contains thousands of marketing posters and other assorted "marketing paraphernalia" dating back to the 1920s. The article features a poster for Uricure, which depicts a rather deranged looking bearded man holding aloft a small box of the substance. The article explains:

Uricure was a drug purported to improve rheumatism, arthritis, gout, and kidney disorders. The molecular details of the product are unknown, however, as is its therapeutic value.

The posters in the slide show are even more amazing, featuring slogans like, "Weed with roots in hell" and skeletons pouring cups of allegedly curative tonics.

To read the entire article, see Edyta Zielinska's, Medical Posters, circa 1920.

Dr Olaf's not alone! A brain doc with a family history of madness

2011-04-28T10:24:00.000-07:00

I just came across an NPR story on neuroscientist James Fallon--a man who, inspired by his mother's comment ("Jim, why don't you find out about your father's relatives? I think there were some cuckoos back there."), began looking into his family history. His finding?

There's a whole lineage of very violent people — killers.

His great-grandfather murdered his mother and was subsequently hanged; another relative (later acquitted) was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an ax. All together, Dr. Fallon found seven alleged murderer relatives.

Dr. Fallon, who has dedicated much of his career to studying the brain of psychopaths, decided to see if any of his living relatives possessed a killer's brain. He scanned his wife, his mother, his siblings, his children, and himself. The only brain scan that revealed an inactive orbital cortex (which he and other scientists believe might lead to troubles with impulse control and moral decision-making) was... his own! He also tested DNA for genes that are associated with violence and discovered that he had "the pattern, the risky pattern. In a sense, I'm a born killer."

Whether his relationship to violence informed his career choice or not, Dr. Fallon reminds me of Dr. Olaf, who struggled to find a cure in the brain for the madness that plagued his family (only Dr. Fallon has had much better time of it!) The internet reveals that he has branched out to study the brains of dictators as well.

Read the whole story about Dr. Fallon here.

Radium Goods!

2011-04-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Readers often ask me if the radium cures in Doctor Olaf were "real" or "fiction." And the answer is, yes! Most of the radium products mentioned in the book are the names of actual products sold in the early half of the 20th century, and most of them did not, in fact, contain any radium. I suspect the same is true for the fabulous collection of radium products How to Be a Retronaut recently posted--everything from "Radium Brand Creamery Butter" to "Radium Lump Gloss Starch" (the "finest quality for laundry purpose").

See the entire collection here: ATOMIC BRAND NAMES.

New evidence of spontaneous combustion?

2011-04-19T20:06:00.000-07:00

Is there such a thing as spontaneous combustion? Roger Huang, a man who has been working for years to shut down San Francisco sex shops, thinks there might be. David Lohr reports that on April 13th, a man watching porn at the back of the Golden Gate Adult Superstore "burst into flames."

Witnesses reportedly saw the burning man running out of the Golden Gate Adult Superstore in the city's South of Market neighborhood at about 6:20 p.m. Wednesday. The man ran past stunned onlookers and collapsed at the corner of Mission and Sixth streets, police said.

Fire investigators are still looking into the case. Oddly, they say, "authorities have found 'no damage to the inside of the building at all.'"
Doctor Clementius Steenwycks would advise them to look out for a mucus-like yellow substance. And he might inquire after the drinking habits of the victim, who is being treated for the burns.

Read the full story here: A Sign? Man Bursts Into Flames at San Francisco Sex Shop

Mona Lisa's Skull?

2011-04-12T09:56:00.000-07:00

Can a skull help us determine the identity of the Mona Lisa? An exhumed skull, no less, buried centuries ago? Silvano Vincenti thinks so. He heads up the Italian research team that has asked for permission to open the tomb where the master's remains (are presumed to) lie. Why? To see if the famed da Vinci may have painted himself as a woman. Says one committee member:

If we manage to find his skull, we could rebuild Leonardo’s face and compare it with the Mona Lisa.

But, of course.

Murray Wardrop writes about this somewhat mad (dare I say, Olaf-like?) project for The Telegraph. Read the whole story here.

Doctor Olaf Reviewed in the Archives of Neurology

2011-02-15T11:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been several years since the book came out, so I was almost as surprised as I was delighted to come across a new review of Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain in the Archives of Neurology. I'm waiting for the full text of the review, but the blurb is awesome:

Intelligent, imaginative, and consummately researched.

Thank you Archives of Neurology! More when the rest of the review comes in.javascript:void(0)

The return of the lobotomy? Plus, electroshock therapy? Medicine marches forward, and back

2011-02-15T11:07:00.000-08:00

I suppose the title of Benedict Carey's piece for the New York Times, Wariness on Surgery of the Mind speaks a caution that isn't present in most of the Olaf stories. Still, the techniques described in the article are not unlike the ones we've tried in the past:

In 2009, the government approved one surgical technique for certain severe cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or O.C.D. For the first time since frontal lobotomy fell into disrepute in the 1950s, surgery for behavior problems seemed back on the road to the medical mainstream.

Dr. Joseph J. Fins, quoted in the article, refers to the past when he responds: “With the legacy of psychosurgery, it’s important that we don’t misrepresent things as therapy when they’re not.”

So, fifty years have past since the infamous frontal lobotomy, and we're still not sure about how and when best to operate on the brain. The article goes on to discuss deep brain stimulation (D.B.S.), in which "a surgeon sinks wires deep into the brain and leaves them in place." The use of such a treatment is also controversial, though I'm happy to see that the current device is not nearly as imposing as the magneto Dr. Steenwycks used back in the late 19th century.

Mostly, though, the article points out that most people agree that more testing needs to be done. When I think about my brain and what might be best for it, I have to admit, that makes sense to me.

It's all in the brain

2010-08-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

In this month's Scientific American, Kent A Kiehl and Joshua W. Buckhotz report that "some of the most cold-blooded killers aren't bad" they just "suffer from a brain abnormality" (could all good and bad be just that?)

Thanks to technology that captures brain activity in real time, experts are no longer limited to examining psychopaths' aberrant behavior. We can investigate what is happening inside them as they think, make decisions and react to the world around them. And what we find is that far from being merely selfish, psychopaths suffer from a serious biological defect. Their brains process information differently from those of other people. It's as if they have a learning disability that impairs emotional development. ...

These differences show up early, as early as five years old. The good news is that once the abnormality is detected, it may be treatable with "novel forms of therapy" that "show promise."

To read the entire article, see Inside the Mind of a Psychopath

500 brains in glass jars

2010-08-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

Hard to imagine that more than five hundred brains--cancerous brains, floating in formaldehyde and stored in glass jars, no less--could remain hidden in "various crannies" of Yale's medical school as well as the "basement of the medical school’s dorms" for over seventy years, but Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.'s article in today's New York Times states that this is the case. And even better, "after a colossal effort to clean and organize the material", the brains are now in a room designed solely for them!

The brains were collected by Dr. Harvey Cushing, a Yale professor and one of America’s first neurosurgeons. The article quotes Michael Bliss, a medical historian, who writes this of Cushing:

“Cushing became the first surgeon in history who could open what he referred to as ‘the closed box’ of the skull of living patients with a reasonable certainty that his operations would do more good than harm.”

Before Cushing's time, doctors relied on their patients for information that would lead to the site of a brain tumor. Cushing developed a test based on vision--various changes in vision caused by different tumors--to help identify tumor location. Though doctors now use MRIs to locate tumors, the article notes that "comparatively little progress has been made since Dr. Cushing’s time in actually prolonging life in brain-cancer patients." Dr. Dennis Spencer, the chairman of neurosurgery at Yale and the Harvey and Kate Cushing professor of neurosurgery, notes:

Everything we’ve done in the last 100 years has changed the progress for malignant brain tumors very little, extending life maybe eight months to two years.

To read the complete article and see a picture of the brain jars, see Inside Neurosurgery’s Rise by Randi Hutter Epstein, M.D.

Cures for Autism? or evoking Dr. Olaf?

2010-02-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

Today's New York Times ran a guest blog by Liane Carter that detailed her efforts to find a cure for her son, diagnosed with autism. Her family tried all the standard treatments as well as the fringe ones: a gluten/casein-free diet, probiotics, cranial sacral therapy, auditory integration therapy, homeopathy. Her doctor "charged thousands of dollars," offering "one cure du jour after another, quick to take advantage of our desperation." All this led to the following Olaf-like moment:

Finally, he insisted our 4-year-old had stealth birus [KMA: a condition I cannot find mentioned online, which makes me think it's either a typo or extreme madness]. He urged us to give him a cytotoxic drug called ganciclovir then being used for AIDS patients and other severely immuno-compromised people.

“How many children have you treated with this?” I asked.

“I’m treating one patient right now,” he said.

I was relieved that the author pulled her son from this doctor's care. Science continues to evolve, and quackery remains, and the post is a great reminder of that. To read the full story, see The False Prophets of Autism.

Building a Brain?

2009-12-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

"Twenty years from now, the author envisages the brain builder industry as being one of the world's top industries, comparable with oil, automobile, and construction."
—Hugo de Garis (1996)

Can we build a brain? Hugo de Garis thinks so. Currently a professor at Wuhan University, he is working on the "China Brain Project", a four-year project that aims to develop "an artificial brain (A-Brain)". The brain, which will consist of 15,000 interconnected neural net modules, will control "the hundreds of behaviors of an autonomous robot." de Garis promises that the technology will be fast and cheap "(e.g. $1500 for the FPGA board, $1000 for the robot, and $500 for the PC, a total of $3000)" and he hopes "that other brain building groups around the world will copy this evolutionary engineering approach."

Also interesting are de Garis's predictions for the future. According to an interview on machineslikeus.com, he summarizes the views he expresses in his book, The Artilect War:

The book is very pessimistic, unfortunately, although I hope it is at least realistic. Its basic scenario is as follows. It is predicated on the rise of the “artilect,” i.e., machines that use 21st century technologies such as 1 bit per atom storage, reversible, heatless, nano-teched, self assembling, (topological, i.e. robust) quantum computers, that will have capacities zillions of times above human levels. I foresee humanity then splitting into 2 (arguably 3) major philosophical groups, a) the Cosmists (in favor of building artilects), b) the Terrans (opposed), and c) the Cyborgists (who want to convert themselves into artilects by adding components to themselves, i.e. by becoming “cyborgs” (cybernetic organisms)).

These philosophical differences will ultimately lead to a major war, "using 21st century weapons, and hence probably billions (not millions) of people will be killed."

Still, de Garis supports continuing with the research. "If you are a strong Cosmist, you will place higher priority on the creation of godlike artilects than the survival of the human species."

To read the full interview, see Machines Like Us.

Finding truth in the brain?

2009-12-07T12:50:00.000-08:00

Technovelgy published an interesting article about the use of lie detectors tests in India, where results from the Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature (BEOS) tests are now accepted in courts of law. The case described is of a young woman, Aditi Sharma, who was accused of poisoning her former fiance in a McDonalds. She agreed to undergo the test, and:

After placing 32 electrodes on Ms. Sharma’s head, investigators said, they read aloud their version of events, speaking in the first person (“I bought arsenic”; “I met Udit at McDonald’s”), along with neutral statements like “The sky is blue,” which help the software distinguish memories from normal cognition.

For an hour, Ms. Sharma said nothing. But the relevant nooks of her brain where memories are thought to be stored buzzed when the crime was recounted, according to Mr. Joseph, the state investigator. The judge endorsed Mr. Joseph’s assertion that the scans were proof of “experiential knowledge” of having committed the murder, rather than just having heard about it.

Proof that she is guilty? The verdict is still out. The National Academy of Sciences states "Almost a century of research in scientific psychology and physiology provides little basis for the expectation that a polygraph test could have extremely high accuracy..."

To read the full article, see Indian Court Says Brain Scan Proves Murder.

Mesmerize your warts away...

2009-10-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's some more information about hypnotism and wart removal. This study, conducted by Nicholas P. Spanos, Robert J. Stenstrom, and Joseph C. Johnston and published in 1988 in Psychosomatic Medicine, found that "subjects given hypnotic suggestion exhibited more wart regression than those given either a placebo treatment or no treatment."

Here's a bit more about the effective hypnotic treatment:

After being comfortably seated and asked to close their eyes, subjects were orally administered a 5-min hypnotic induction procedure... Following the induction procedure, and without a break in continuity, subjects were administered a suggestion for wart elimination that was 2 min in duration. The suggestion asked subjects to attend to the sensations in their target hand and informed them repeatedly that the skin around their warts was beginning to tingle and grow warm. The suggestion also informed subjects that their warts would shrink and fall off and asked them to vividly imagine their warts shrinking in size and dissolving away.

The placebo group, which I enjoyed reading about very much (particularly the bit about protective goggles), received a "cold laser treatment." The "laser" was a "metal devise with numerous dials and buttons and an opening in which subjects placed their target hand. When the 'laser' was switched on, it made a whirring sound, and a sweeping pink light could be seen in the opening. Subjects donned 'protective goggles' and placed their hand in the opening for the first of two 4-min 'laser doses.' They were told that they might experience some tingling, prickling, and warmth in their hand during the treatment but not to be alarmed at these sensations."

A third group, the control, received no treatment. At the end of the study, the subjects' remaining warts were tallied, and the researches discovered that hypnotised patients had a 41.48% reduction, "laser" patients a 22.25% reduction, and control patients a 6.39% reduction.

All subjects, recruited via posters plastered in the vicinity of the Carleton campus, were paid $15 for their participation in the study.

"The Mesmerized Mind"

2009-10-21T16:01:00.000-07:00

Science News recently ran a wonderful article on recent work in hypnotism. Susan Gaidos reports:
"But hypnosis is more than a stage show act. For years, psychologists have used it to help patients calm preflight jitters, get a good night's sleep or chuck a cigarette habit. Hypnosis even has uses in mainstream medicine for reducing the side effects of cancer treatments and helping patients cope with pain."

But recent studies go even further and may, according to some, help lead to treatments for a range of psychiatric and neurological disorders:
"[Hypnosis] is now used as a research tool to temporarily create hallucinations, compulsions, delusions and certain types of seizures in the lab so that these phenomena can be investigated in detail."

A bit more of interest:
+ "When hypnotized people act on hypnotic suggestion, they really do see, hear, and feel differently" --color where none exists, for example. Or pain, "in the same brain areas as 'real' pain."

+ "10-15% of adults are 'highly hypnotizable'," according to David Spiegel, a psychiatrist at Stanford University, "meaning they can experience dramatic changes in perception with hypnosis."

Are you one of these? According to the article, it may be linked to "an ability to become deeply absorbed in activities such as reading, listening to music or daydreaming."

+ "Rigorously controlled studies have shown that hypnosis can also control blood pressure and even make warts go away." [wow--going to google scholar that one]

+ Researchers at the University of Geneva have been study "hysterical hand paralysis". Findings are published in Neuron.

Diagnose Yourself

2009-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

Doctor Olaf posted a Facebook quiz:

Diagnose Yourself!
Connect with your inner quack

I think all the bugs are ironed out. If you have a moment, please try it out and let me know if you have any troubles with it.

You can reach the quiz here

Trepanation, the Return

2009-09-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

It's been far too long since I've updated this blog with news of the brain, but I've been meaning to note the interesting "Trepanation for dementia" post I came across on BoingBoing awhile back, and so, late but better than never: The story of Russian neurophysiologist Yuri Moskalenko, who is looking into trepanation as a possible treatment for dementia. After studying 15 people who had undergone trepanation for head injuries, he concluded that the trepanated had a "cranial compliance ("a measure of the elasticity of the brain's vascular system") [that] was around 20 per cent higher than the average for their age". Because a reduced flow of blood and cerebrospinal fluid impairs the delivery of oxygen to the brain and waste away from it, he believes that a 4-square-centimeter hole could increase the blood flow and could therefore be an effective treatment for dementia.

To read the full story, see Like a hole in the head: The return of trepanation.

Dr. Olaf in San Francisco

2009-05-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

Two nice bits of Dr. Olaf news from right here in San Francisco:
The very talented Michelle Richmond mentioned Dr. Olaf in her SF Chronicle blog, City Lights. And my friend Jen sent a fabulous photo of Dr. Olaf (as the book appears on the new release browsing shelf in the SF public library):

Doctor Olaf in The New England Journal of Medicine!

2009-05-20T18:53:00.000-07:00

Kiki Benzon, Ph.D. reviews Doctor Olaf for the New England Journal of Medicine.

Although its focus is on the past, Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain casts a sobering light on contemporary medicine...
Menger-Anderson has written an intelligent and humorous history of the science of brains--and the brains of science.

To read the full review, see www.nejm.org, May 20, 2009.

Doctor Olaf on The Rumpus

2009-05-12T07:43:00.000-07:00

Karen Laws writes about Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain on The Rumpus:

Her research into such fashionable therapeutic disciplines as phrenology and mesmerism not only helps readers understand what her characters understand, but contributes to a lively exploration of universal themes...when writers put their ardent love for researching a historical period at the service of plot and character development, the results can be vivid and intense, as well as thrilling.

To read the entire piece, see Research for Storytellers

Olaf is Book of the Week over at Wonders and Marvels

2009-04-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

Wonders and Marvels, a "Community for Curious Minds who love History, its Odd Stories, and Good Reads," is giving away a copy of Dr Olaf, which was selected as this week's book of the week. I was thrilled to be included on the site! And to earn an honorary place among medical historians.

Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain is simply gorgeous. Menger-Andersen moves us from early-modern Europe to modern day New York with subtly and historical appreciation of the fine details that bring these moments together--and that make each uniquely different.

To read the entire piece as well as my guest post about Olaf and the research that went into the book, head on over to Wonders and Marvels. It's not too late to enter for the drawing for a free copy of Olaf!

Northern California Book Awards

2009-04-20T08:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon in the San Francisco Library's (packed) Koret Auditorium where the 28th Annual Northern California Book Awards ceremony took place. And. Wow! What an afternoon. Tremendous admiration and thanks to the book reviewers, who selected nominees from over 700 titles published by Nor-Cal authors, and to all the people who volunteered their time and talents to put on a fantastic show. And, of course, to all the people who came out for it. I think every nominee left feeling like a winner. I know I did. We have a fabulous lit community out here, and I'm proud to be part of it.

Congratulations to all the winners:

Fiction: Sylvia Brownrigg, The Delivery Room
Poetry: Rusty Morrison, the true keeps calm biding its story
General Nonfiction: Richard A. Muller,
Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines
Creative Nonfiction: John Adams, Hallelujah Junction:
Composing an American Life
Children's Literature: Pamela S. Turner, A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts
Translation: Katherine Silver for Horacio Castellanos Moya's Senselessness
Special Recognition Award: Eric Karpeles, Paintings in Proust:
A Visual Companion to In Search of Lost Time
Fred Cody Award For Lifetime Achievement Community: Dorothy Bryant

Doctor Olaf reviewed in the Feminist Review

2009-04-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

Heather Irvine reviews Doctor Olaf for the Feminist Review:

This book is eerie, smart, unique, and very delicately crafted... The novel was truly a pleasure to read and thoroughly researched.

To read the entire review, see Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain.

Olaf visits Sex, Food, and Writing

2009-04-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Donna George Storey, author of Amorous Woman, interviews me on her spicy and always entertaining blog, Sex, Food, and Writing. You can find more questions and answers (and publicity tips) in her monthly column for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, Shameless Self Promotion.

Olaf nominated for a Northern California Book Award!

2009-03-22T19:27:00.001-07:00

I just learned that Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain has been nominated for the Northern California Book Award in Fiction! The nominations are:

* Lady Lazarus, Andrew Foster Altschul, Harcourt
* Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, Kirsten Menger-Anderson, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
* The Delivery Room, Sylvia Brownrigg, Counterpoint
* Requiem for the Author of Frankenstein , Molly Dwyer, Lost Coast Press
* No One You Know, Michelle Richmond, Delacorte Press

I'm absolutely thrilled to be included in such company. The ceremony for the 28th Annual Northern California Book Awards will be held Sunday, April 19, at Koret Auditorium (San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin at Grove) at 1:00 p.m. The event is open to the public. Please come!

VJ Books likes Doctor Olaf!

2009-03-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

I just came across this nice write up about Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain on VJ Books:

Menger-Anderson has not only done her research -- deftly documenting three centuries of medical quackery -- but she also knows how to weave a tale. She holds the reader spellbound from the first slice into a corpse's brain to the final probe of genetic research.

Visit VJ Books at http://www.vjbooks.com.

Olaf's first book group!

2009-02-25T21:37:00.000-08:00

At least, I think the Thousand Oaks Goebel Senior Center Literature Group is the first book group to discuss Dr. Olaf. I asked if it would be okay to post a photograph to commemorate the discussion, and the group was kind enough to pose for two. Thank you Thousand Oaks readers! Click on either picture to view a larger version.

Olaf recommended by the staff of Powells.com!

2009-02-22T03:25:00.000-08:00

As a big fan of Powell's bookstore (I always swing by when I'm in Portland), I was thrilled to discover that the staff have some nice things to say about Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain:

If Tracy Chevalier and Mary Roach got together to write a novel, Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain might be the result. This book is a wonderful collection of connected short stories and a history of medicine rendered through the lives of one extended family.

To see the online listing for Dr. Olaf click here, or--if you're anywhere near Portland--swing by to get some books and see Olaf on the shelves (I hear there are only two copies left in stock).

Olaf is a best-seller in Marin!

2009-02-14T19:30:00.000-08:00

This week's list of the fiction selling best in Marin (compiled by the Marin Independent Journal ) includes Doctor Olaf (#10, after Roberto Bolano's 2666 and Lauren Groff's Delicate Edible Birds). Thank you, Marin! And thank you, Book Passage and Book Depot!

To see the entire list, see Best-sellers for week of Feb. 15.

I'll be at the Central Coast Writers' Conference

2009-02-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

I was invited to teach at this year's Central Coast Writers' Conference taking place Oct 2-3 in San Louis Obispo! I'm very excited and look forward to meeting YOU if you can make it. I'll be teaching two workshops (one on publishing short stories and one on dialog--I'll link to the descriptions once they're posted on the conference site. For now, you can read about last year's program here.

Olaf on The Bookish Dilettante

2009-02-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf got a nice mention on the Bookish Dilettante's blog ("On Books and Publishing and Whatnot") the other day:

If I had been organized enough to have read this in it's entirety in by the end of the year, this would have been my favorite book of 2008. . . Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain is an incredibly good book. . . It's unputdownable. Point being: Go. Read this now!

To read the full note, see Some Books I Am Currently Digging.

Review of Olaf on Bookotron

2009-01-29T14:40:00.000-08:00

Rick Kleffel, who did an interview with me earlier this month, posted a very nice review of Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain on The Agony Column:

'Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain' is a fascinating, glorious reading experience that will have you questioning everything around you long after you've finished the book. It is the perfect cure for certainty.

To read the entire review, see A Review of 'Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain' by Kirsten Menger-Anderson: The Ineffable Beyond and Rick's additional commentary.

Doctor Olaf included in NYU's Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database

2009-01-28T08:59:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf now appears in NYU's Literature, Arts, and Medicine Database, an " annotated multimedia listing of prose, poetry, film, video and art that was developed to be a dynamic, accessible, comprehensive resource for teaching and research in MEDICAL HUMANITIES, and for use in health/pre-health, graduate and undergraduate liberal arts and social science settings."

To read the entry for Dr. Olaf, see Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain.

Podcast of Writers on Writing interview

2009-01-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

If you missed Marrie Stone's interview of me for "Writers on Writing," broadcast on KUCI back in November, you can catch the podcast here.

Interview with The Agony Column's Rick Kleffel

2009-01-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

The first half of an interview I did with Rick Kleffel is now up on Bookotron! Kleffel introduces the podcast with some very nice words about Olaf:

When you look at a book as complicated, as enjoyable as wonderfully layered as 'Doctor Olaf Van Schuler's Brain' by Kirsten Menger-Anderson, music comes to mind... But what’s really wonderful about this book is just how much she packs into her linked short stories; great characters, echoing themes, parallel lives, and so much more. This is a book that will suit a wide variety of readers, from the McSweeney's and art-house literary gang to the science-fiction loving readers of this column. And though it has so much in it, it does feel just like the symphony you suspect it is as you read, a beautiful melodic sweep though medical — and human — history.

To listen to the interview, see A 2009 Interview with Kirsten Menger-Anderson Part 1: Writing "Reading Grandpa's Head and Part 2: The Family Tree.

Doctor Olaf reviewed in the Internet Review of Books

2009-01-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Ruth Douillette reviews Doctor Olaf for the Internet Review of Books:

Dr. Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain is an intriguing string of 13 stories...there are tasty treats aplenty in this book.

To read the entire review, see Manifest madness.

Olaf recommended by Books on the Nightstand--in Podcast!

2009-01-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

Books on the Nightstand--"illuminating conversations on books and reading"-- included a segment on Doctor Olaf in this week's podcast.

Ann Kingman says the following about Olaf:

I heard from one of my bookseller friends...'have you read Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, because if you haven't, let me know and I'm going to send you a copy.' And for a bookseller to offer to send me a book always means that I have to drop everything and read it because it's just that good... I absolutely loved it.

To hear the entire podcast, see Episode 22. Check out Books ont he Nightstand on Facebook or Goodreads or at Books on the Nightstand.

Madison Public Library likes Doctor Olaf!

2009-01-13T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today's google search for Doctor Olaf returned a nice blog entry from the Madison Public Library:

Menger-Anderson’s descriptions of the evolution of surgical practice and its consequences make these stories truly unforgettable. I normally don’t get excited about scientific writing, fiction or nonfiction, but in these tales, the surgeries are surrounded with an aura of mystery and magic that’s absent from modern medicine, and the characters that inhabit the stories are so elegantly written that the stories become more about the doctors’ obsessions with understanding the workings of the body than their literal blood and guts.

To read the entire entry, see Mind over matter?

Olaf in the Minneapolis Star Tribune

2009-01-12T09:24:00.000-08:00

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reviews Doctor Olaf:

"[A] fascinating look at how beliefs about medicine and New York society have changed. . . Each story is a tasty morsel."

For the complete review, see The browser: a quick look at recent releases.

Education and Insanity?

2009-01-06T09:47:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks, I've been busy blogging about Olaf reviews and appearances and not the odd and interesting medical topics that inspired the blog. Today, however, I'd like to share some food for thought in the form of a brief quote taken from Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers:

In 1871 [coincidentally, the year in which "Neurasthenia: A Victorian Love Story" is set]...the U.S. commissioner of education published a report by Edward Jarvis on the "Relation of Education to Insanity." Jarvis had studied 1,741 cases of insanity and concluded that "over-study" was responsible for 205 of them. "Education lays the foundation of a large portion of the causes of mental disorder," Jarvis wrote.

Interesting.... According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Jarvis (among other things) "had unsuccessful medical practices in Massachusetts and Kentucky. He returned to the Boston area in 1843 and began seeing, treating, and housing mentally ill patients in his home."

Olaf selected as one of 2008's best books by the Sun Sentinel

2009-01-03T15:12:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf is included in Chauncey Mabe's list of best books for 2008! Here's the link: Best books of 2008: Robert Olen Butler to Stephen King.

Olaf on West Coast Live!

2008-12-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Olaf and I (and Olaf's fan/my husband Dave) headed out to the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley to be part of Sedge Thomson's two-hour live radio show, West Coast Live. Other guests included John Adams, Mike Marshall,Caterina Lichtenberg, The Coverlettes, and Nancy Raff. The show is streamed via web as well as broadcast on dozens of stations across the US. And it's a lot of fun to see live--if you have a chance to attend a live broadcast, I highly recommend it!

Olaf joins Chicago Time Out's Top 10 for '08 and Seed magazine's picks for '08!

2008-12-18T12:17:00.000-08:00

Today's self-indulgent search for Doctor Olaf revealed that the good doctor has been included in Time Out Chicago's Top Ten for 2008 list, as well as Seed magazine's Picks for 2008. The Doctor is very honored to be listed with the likes of Mary Roach, Carl Zimmer, Tobias Wolff, and the other fine writers included in the lists.

Doctor Olaf, making the rounds

2008-12-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

Today, I noticed that Doctor Olaf is now available as a Kindle edition on Amazon. Although I've resolved to buy books at local bookstores, I think the digital edition is pretty cool! I have yet to use (or even see) a Kindle. I know I'd miss the feeling of holding a book, but the convenience of having books beamed to my reading device is alluring. I wish the library had a system like that...

Speaking of libraries, I also swung by the San Francisco Public Library and took a quick break from research to look up Olaf in the card catalogue. All copies are out! And it appears that several people are waiting to read returned copies (and that more copies are under consideration). I was very happy to see that. I also stumbled on a nice review by the Roger's Memorial Library:

Menger-Anderson is an incredible writer who creates a collection of interconnected stories that are fascinating, hilarious and beautiful.

To read the entire review, see Roger's Memorial Library website.

Doctor Olaf in the Boston Globe

2008-12-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

Eric Grunwald reviews Doctor Olaf for the Boston Globe:

Darkly funny, often sad, frequently frightening, and sometimes hopeful...the product of a gifted literary writer.

To read the entire review, see Odd, intriguing stories of quacks and cures.

Doctor Olaf reviewed in the Vancouver Voice

2008-12-10T10:12:00.000-08:00

Jack Booch reviews Doctor Olaf for the Vancouver Voice:

At the heart of the stories is a deep sympathy for the fallibility of the human condition. However damaging some of the characters prove to be (both to themselves and others), they are all comprehensible... a deliciously good read.

To read the entire review, see Gadzooks! The human brain!.

Reviewed in Romanian?!

2008-12-08T10:38:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf was reviewed by Andrei Bacalu in Jurnalul National. Entitled "O familie imaginară", the review resembles the one that appeared in the NYT in structure and content, with a few new twists (perhaps introduced by google translator?). According to the google translation, the review opens:

Trust given to doctors, after an amazing story full of errors, the dominant note of the volume of "brain Dr Olaf van Schuler. It is the story, divided into several short prose, independent only at first sight, in which doctors play, often without drift, the main role.

Other enjoyable translation moments include:

Beliefs on when the doctors seem to be the fruit of sick minds--how else could we explain with certainty that it says that a drinker can light up in blue and millstone burnt by fire.

and

Reaching the van Schuler family history in the twentieth century, meet a doctor elated by the mammary implants with silicone.

To read the complete translation, see An imaginary family.

Doctor O is Shelf Life's pick of the week!

2008-12-08T10:27:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf is "Pick of the week" in this week's Shelf Life column for the Boston Globe:

Christopher Castellani, author of "The Saint of Lost Things" and director of Grub Street, recommends "Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain," by Kirsten Menger-Anderson (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill): "Tracing 12 generations of doctors as they seek a cure for pain and madness, these linked stories masterfully combine the fascinating and utterly strange history of medicine with a colorful history of New York City. The characters are vivid and unforgettable; Menger-Anderson's sensibility is wholly original."

To read Jan Gardner's entire column, see Shelf Life.

Tag

2008-12-08T10:12:00.000-08:00

I have just been called upon (i.e., tagged) to

(RULE ONE) grab one of the books closest to me, go to page 56, type the fifth line and the next two to five lines that follow.

The book closest to me is Soul Made Flesh by Carl Zimmer. Page 56 has a picture on it. The next closest book is Moth Catcher by Michael M. Collins. Page 56:

"Sycamore, alder, and willow are also found in these palm canyons, displaced fifty or sixty miles from their nearest stands in the surrounding mountains. Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains of Arizona supports relict specimens of wild black cherry (Prunus serotina) hundreds of miles from the edge of the species' range in the central and eastern states. Stands of California black oak (Quercus kelloggii) grow in canyons above the town of Independence on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada, widely disjunct from the species' main distribution on the western slopes."

RULE TWO, I have to pick five people who love books. I'm going to modify this rule to include anyone reading this post who feels like playing. What lines are banging around on page 56 of the book next to you?

Olaf takes the Page 69 Test

2008-12-04T17:27:00.000-08:00

Doctor Olaf took the page 69 test on Marshal Zeringue's blog. Did he pass? You decide.

Olaf is a staff pick at Inkwell Bookstore!

2008-12-04T15:03:00.000-08:00

If you're anywhere near Falmouth, MA, swing by Inkwell Bookstore, where Olaf is a staff pick! From the blurb on the homepage:

This fantastic debut by Kirsten Menger-Anderson is the best book I’ve read in the past few months...It astonishes how the author is able to illuminate a person’s life, in all its pain and glory, in a mere twenty page chapter.

To book is also noted in the Inkwell Bookstore Blog.

Doctor Olaf in the New York Times Book Review

2008-11-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Francesca Mari reviews Doctor Olaf for the New York Times' Sunday Book Review:

Science is an elixir that sweeps characters under its spell. Yet the pace of [DOCTOR OLAF VAN SCHULER’S BRAIN] is driven as much, if not more, by the reader’s romantic appetite—by an itch to discover how each story is romantically resolved and connected to the long lineage.

To read the entire review, see Annals of Malpractice

Barnes & Noble Review shines the spotlight on Olaf

2008-11-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

David Abrams writes about Doctor Olaf for the "Spotlight" section of this week's Barnes & Noble Review:

Menger-Anderson has not only done her research -- deftly documenting three centuries of medical quackery -- but she also knows how to weave a tale. She holds the reader spellbound from the first slice into a corpse's brain to the final probe of genetic research.

To read the full review, see the Barnes & Noble Review

Doctor Olaf in St Louis Post-Dispatch

2008-11-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Dale Singer reviews Doctor Olaf for the St Louis Post-Dispatch

In the fertile imagination of Kirsten Menger-Anderson, one after another of the descendants in the Steenwycks clan confront the medical miseries and mysteries of their day: animal magnetism, spontaneous combustion, neurasthenia, then the more modern maladies of polio, the side effects of breast implants and finally Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: mad cow... Readers will find Menger-Anderson's presentation of the case fascinating, but only rarely can the physicians heal themselves.

To read the entire review, see "Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain"

Doctor Olaf in Sunday's Chicago Sun Times

2008-11-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Mark Athitakis reviews Doctor Olaf for the Sunday Chicago Sun-Times:

An ingenious and appealing collection of linked stories. . . . Menger-Anderson brings a writerly order to the messiness of our minds.

To read the complete review, see Quackery rears deadly head in family-linked collection

Olaf in Santa Cruz Sentinel

2008-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

Chris Watson takes a look at Doctor Olaf in Book Briefs for the Santa Cruz Sentinel:

Within a highly atmospheric framework the ghosts of Robert Louis Stevenson, Washington Irving and Mark Twain haunt the stories, Menger-Anderson delicately angles toward a cautionary tale for the modern world

To read the complete review, see First, do no harm

Olaf in the SF Chronicle

2008-11-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

Vanessa Hua reviews Doctor Olaf for today's San Francisco Chronicle:

A fascinating kaleidoscope ride across generations of physicians and their patients. The writing is vivid and entertaining, revealing lifetimes and worldviews in a few carefully chosen details. . . . The author's zest for the historical details shines throughout the collection.. . . . In this quirky, moving collection, Menger-Anderson illustrates the power of medicine - and family.

To read the entire review, see Hysteria, insanity--it's all in the family

I'm a local author!

2008-11-10T15:08:00.001-08:00

I admit that I have a habit of facing books by people I know. I love doing it, plus, I always get a bit of a rush, "sneaking" through the store aisles like a shoplifter or petty criminal, looking for titles to turn out to the world.

My friend William took the art of facing a step further, approaching the staff of a local Books Inc and asking for a "local author" tag for the book. How cool is that?! And here is a picture!

Olaf in The Brooklyn Rail

2008-11-10T14:25:00.000-08:00

Ben Mirov reviews Doctor Olaf for The Brooklyn Rail:

"An array of arresting, thoughtful, and touching moments."

To read the entire review, see the November Prose Roundup.

"Odd Shelf" on Readerville.com

2008-11-06T10:31:00.001-08:00

Today's Odd Shelf on Readerville.com features my selection of tomes concerning South American rainforests (books that also happen to be sitting on my desk). Looking for an adventure set along the Amazon River? Curious about Peace Corp life in Ecuador? Hoping to find some nice pictures of Honduran White Bats? Now you know where to go!

TALK SHOW 19: Doubting Thomas

2008-11-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

Jaime Clarke talks to me, David Ebershoff, Sheridan Hay, Amy MacKinnon, and Roxana Robinson on the subject of doubt: "whether the printed book is 'dead,' whether there’s an afterlife? a God? the validity of the effectiveness of disinfectant wipes and other would be illusions looming on the horizon."

Read the show!

Interview by Scott Doyle

2008-11-03T09:34:00.000-08:00

Scott Doyle interviews me on his blog, Lit Scribbler. Questions range from social unrest, to the role of women in the book, to moral ambiguity. The interview is the first in his project to present interviews with authors featured in the New Short Fiction Series, where Doctor Olaf will be appearing on the evening of November 14. Please see the calendar for more information about the event.

Doctor O in the Richmond Times

2008-11-03T09:19:00.000-08:00

Special correspondent Doug Childers reviews Doctor Olaf for the Richmond Times:

Kirsten Menger-Anderson's strikingly original "Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain" explores so many fascinating topics -- among them, animal magnetism, phrenology and spontaneous combustion -- that it might be best to begin with what it is not.

Although it follows several generations of a single family from 1664 to 2006, Menger-Anderson's book is not a doorstop-sized epic. It leaps across the centuries in a mere 290 pages.

To read the rest of the review: A spellbinding meditation on medicine and madness

Time Out Chicago Gives Olaf Four Stars!

2008-10-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Robert Duffer reviews Doctor Olaf for this week's Time Out Chicago. From the review:

[An] epic romp. . . . The scope of Menger-Anderson’s debut combined with her intellectual curiosity when it comes to archaic medical procedures is dizzying. Yet her prose is equally rich. . . . It’s daunting to conceptualize how the hell she pulls it all off.

To read the entire review, see Book review: Doctor Olaf van Schuler’s Brain.

Dr. O in the New York Press

2008-10-30T09:44:00.000-07:00

Jeffrey Cretan reviews Doctor Olaf in this week's edition of the New York Press. From the review:

There are some wonderful characters in these pages. . . . Menger-Anderson’s characters are well developed, and her attention to detail—down to the tools used by the generations of doctors—is thorough. She incorporates historical events into the story, everything from the Conspiracy of 1741 to the Attica Prison riots. These events, like the descriptions of a tavern in 1700, create a connection between the reader and New York City itself. The events may be dark spots in the city’s history—just as the quackery practiced by the doctors doesn’t represent science’s brightest moments—yet Metzger-Anderson presents each of them, as well as the parade of New Yorkers through time, in all of their ambition and pain.

To read the entire review: BRAIN READING: We diagnose a century-spanning medical manuscript

Doctor Olaf in the Sun Sentinel

2008-10-26T19:51:00.000-07:00

Chancey Mabe reviewed Doctor Olaf for the Sun Sentinel, calling it a "Quirky, vivid first story collection follows line of New York physicians through generations." Here's an excerpt from the 10/26 review:

A bold first collection chronicling a family of eccentric physicians. . . Menger-Anderson has made an impressive debut.

To read the entire review: Writer's style fits 'Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain'

Good Times and Doctor Olaf

2008-10-26T19:50:00.000-07:00

Good Times, a paper out of my old home town Santa Cruz, ran a very nice review of Doctor O by Leslie Patrick:

"Dr. Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain" by Kirsten Menger-Anderson is a sensational first novel that masterfully intertwines stories of medical fantasia with the intriguing history of New York City. Spanning 342 years and 13 generations of New York medical men (and eventually women once the mid 19th century hit), "Dr. Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain" is a fascinating take on the usual breed of historical fiction. . . Menger-Anderson is in possession of a great literary skill.

To read the rest of the review: Kirsten Menger-Anderson's debut novel puts the mad back in science

Olaf in Washington Post!

2008-10-24T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today's Washington Post has a review of Dr. Olaf! Here's an excerpt from Carolyn See's review:

Mental Health, With Strings Attached

This little book isn't for everyone, but I sure loved it. [hurray!!! -kma] If, like me, you've thought from time to time that under our controlled demeanors, our learning and good manners, we're all about one millimeter away from being stark, staring mad, and that the doctors who set up to treat us are probably just as crazy as the rest of us, if not more so, you'll sigh and smile when you read this.

To read the full review, see the Washington Post website.

Rocking with Olaf

2008-10-23T09:07:00.000-07:00

If you're looking for just the right song to play while you're reading Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain, fear not. I've put together a song list that appears on Largehearted Boy, a "music blog featuring daily free and legal music downloads as well as news from the worlds of music, literature, and pop culture." Enjoy!

Bad for the Brain?

2008-10-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Most people would agree that lobotomy is not a healthy brain activity. However, only recently did evidence emerge that other activities--sporting activities often considered healthy--could have an adverse effect on our grey matter.

A recent article in the New York Times warns potential Everest climbers to think again about the ascent, citing an Italian study published in the European Journal of Neurology that shows that "high-altitude climbing causes a subtle loss of brain cells and motor function."

The study compared the brains of seasoned climbers (who had at least 10 years of experience) to those of healthy, lower-elevation lovers of the same age and gender.

According to the article:

On scans, the climbers showed a reduction in both white and gray matter in various parts of the brain. Overall, the researchers found that the cognitive abilities that were most likely to be affected were the climbers’ executive function and memory.

Six of the nine climbers had lower than average scores on the Digit Symbol test, which measures executive functions. Three out of nine scored lower than average on memory tests, while four scored below average on a visual-motor function test. The study authors noted that the results "are most likely to be due to progressive, subtle brain insults caused by repeated high-altitude exposure."

I need all the white and gray matter I can get, so no climbing for me.

Olaf on 1st Books

2008-10-15T15:48:00.000-07:00

My blog post about Doctor Olaf and his determined march to publication is up at Meg Waite Clayton's 1st BOOKS: STORIES OF HOW WRITERS GET STARTED. Post a comment on the 1st Books site for a chance to win a signed copy of Dr. O!

Olaf spotted at Powell's Bookstore

2008-10-13T12:02:00.001-07:00

A friend wrote to say that she'd spotted Doctor Olaf among the debut titles at Powell's bookstore, and my mom followed up with her camera. Here's the first documented appearance of Olaf on the shelves!

The CIA and... Dr. Olaf!

2008-10-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

Inspired by Kazuki Hirano, who recently accused the American military of developing remote mental telepathy to combat terrorism, I decided to look into the mind control/mesmerism matter further. Lo and behold, Discover magazine reports that in the 1950s, the CIA indeed tested a number of mind-control techniques, including electroshock (which also appears in Dr. Olaf!) as part of a covert project called MKULTRA. MKULTRA--an acronym that was not expanded for reasons that I looked into and will note shortly--attempted to control the minds of both volunteers and unsuspecting American citizens with LSD, radiation, and other methods.

Wikipedia explains the mystery of the project's name:

The project's intentionally oblique CIA cryptonym is made up of the digraph MK, meaning that the project was sponsored by the agency's Technical Services Division, followed by the arbitrary dictionary word ULTRA. Other related cryptonyms include MK-NAOMI and MK-DELTA.

Thanks to wikipedia, I also discovered something called Project ARTICHOKE, which allegedly evolved into MKULTRA in 1953. Does mind control research continue, perhaps under the name of some seemingly innocent fruit or vegetable? Some believe it does--though we should each decide for ourselves--provided, of course, that we are not already controlled by sinister forces...

Olaf reviewed in SEED

2008-09-29T14:10:00.000-07:00

The current issue of SEED magazine has a brief review of Olaf! Here's a nice bit from the review:

Menger-Anderson’s fictional take on the harsh realities of old-world medical science s at once grotesque and utterly compelling, as are her madcap characters, who desire so earnestly to find a cure—whatever the cost.

Hypnotism's Sinister Work

2008-09-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

In 1850, The Fool, whose story is told in "The Baquet," uses mesmerism (a precurser to hypnotism involving a magnetic fluid or ethereal medium residing in the bodies of animate beings) to help cure patients. Today, the applications of this wonderous technology have been broadened to include 'remote mental telepathy to combat terrorism'--at least according to Kazuki Hirano, who was recently arrested for stabbing a British biologist in the leg. Tom Sharpe reports further in The New Mexican:

Hirano said he became convinced his thoughts were being controlled four or five years ago when he began to feel hypnotized while he was homeless in the Camden Town district of London. He said a man named "Doctor Tony" in London's Stockwell district told him Sheldrake [the biologist Hirano ultimately stabbed in the leg] was conducting experiments in mind control on the homeless. Hirano said he didn't believe this at first but came to accept it after reading about Sheldrake on the Internet. He said he now believes the American military is developing remote mental telepathy to combat terrorism.

After discovering that he was being remotely controlled, Hirano began the search for techniques to block the unwanted forces imposed upon him. Dismissing Tai Chi and other Chinese practices as unscientific, and suffering the disdain of Dr. Sheldrake himself who, among other things "looks at me stupid and then walks away", Hirano concluded that people were making money from the experiments and therefore would not tell him how to cure himself. If he finds any answers, he promises to post them on the internet.

Thanks to the Fortean Times for bringing this story to my attention.

The Living or the Dead?

2008-09-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

Science News reports on an experimental heart transplant procedure that involves removing the heart from a "dead" infant and placing it into a "live" one. Researchers performed three such transplants, and all three recipient children continued to live when they otherwise would not have.

The problem? Well, much like the doctor in "Happy Effects"--Dr. Jan Steenwycks, who tries to determine whether or not his patient is expired using techniques of the early 18th century (garlic, mirrors, needles and pins), the doctors of today are not convinced that the dead babies are no longer among the living.

As reported in Science News:

The dilemma focuses on the dead donor rule, an ethical guideline stating that a donor must be dead before vital organs are prepared for transplantation. When the heart has stopped irreversibly, it is called cardiac death. Dead donor rule protocol, based on a 2005 consensus in the medical community, suggests waiting between two and five minutes after the pulse stops to declare death.

However, to prevent damage to the donor organs, the hearts in the study were removed from the donors only "one minute and fifteen seconds after the donor’s pulse ceased."

Should doctors modify the dead donor rule in order to increase the chances of successful transplants? Ethical debates continue. An interesting clip of the debate can also be found on the Science News site.

Olaf reviewed in Booklist

2008-09-11T11:57:00.000-07:00

My editor sent me this nice review of Dr. Olaf from Booklist:

Doctor Olaf Van Schuler’s Brain
By Kirsten Menger-Anderson
Oct. 2008. 304p. Algonquin, $22.95 (9781565125612) Historical Fiction.

The history of medicine and medical quackery, and one’s family personal history within that context, conjoin in this startlingly effective, even educational, novel. The Steenwyck family represents a long processions of brilliant doctors, going all the way back to colonial New York; but if brilliant, they also have quirky, even strange personalities. In a sequence of relatively short chapters, the author, eschewing a long, continuous narrative, preferring, in fact, an album of picture portraits, takes what amounts to snapshots of each Steenwyck doctor as the generations succeed one another, with each doctor’s “professional” activities speaking to the medical issue—or fad—of the day, from learning the mechanics of the brain to raising the dead to practicing phrenology to the Salk vaccine to the current popularity of breast implants. These individuals conduct their research and practices with typical Steenwyck passion, even in the face of skepticism, adversity, and disastrous results. For the most part, medical history cannot help but be interesting, and this author brings the subject to a fascinating glow; by extension, the story of the Steenwyck family becomes one thread of American cultural history.

Doctor Olaf arrived in the mail today

2008-09-09T09:30:00.000-07:00

This morning, on my way out the door, I ran into Jose, our UPS guy, who had a copy of Doctor Olaf van Schuler's Brain in his truck. I opened it right there on the sidewalk. The book looks beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe that it's sitting next to me now. Wooo!!

Doctor Olaf mentioned in the SF Chronicle

2008-09-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Doctor Olaf was listed in the SF Chronicle (along with titles by John Updike, Diane Johnson, Walter Mosley and Alan Cheuse) as one of the "more compelling titles coming out in the fall." Woo!

Bookshop Santa Cruz

2008-08-26T10:05:00.001-07:00

I just heard that I'll be reading from Doctor Olaf at Bookshop Santa Cruz, my favorite childhood bookstore! The building is different from the one I knew (the original didn't survive the Loma Prieta earthquake), but I've been to the "new" location (only new in my mind--the earthquake was over 15 years ago), and I'm thrilled to be appearing there.

Details:

Monday, November 17, 7:30 pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Avenue
Santa Cruz, Ca 95060
831 460 3232

Doctor Olaf is on LibraryThing

2008-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

I recently became a member of librarything.com, the "world's largest bookclub." I'm still exploring the site and setting up an author page, but already I'm impressed by the site and the number of readers and writers who use it. If you're a member, please drop by and say hello!

In related news, ten copies of Dr Olaf are currently available through librarything's Early Reviewers group. I'm pleased that Olaf is listed with such great company, including reader-requested favorites Company of Liars by Karen Maitland, Cul De Sac by Richard Thompson, Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology by Nick Gevers, and Mr. White's Confession by Robert Clark. According to the FAQ, the readers who are selected to receive early review copies are chosen using lecanomancy--I had to look it up--but it involves throwing three stones into a basin and summoning a demon. Sounds fair to me! Though the site promises that other factors are considered as well.

Card for Olaf

2008-08-08T09:57:00.000-07:00

My mom designed some business cards for Dr Olaf:

I'm lucky to have a mom with good design sense!

The Return of the Leech

2008-07-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the day--the 18th and early 19th century, and perhaps as far back as 1000BC--leeches were the cure all, from headaches to hemorrhoids, fever to flatulence and the common cold. Dr. Johann Friedrich Dieffenback (1792-1847), an early practitioner of plastic surgery, even successfully utilized leeches to aid in the reconstruction of the nose of Caroline Rohl, who had suffered from "degenerative scrofula". Dr. R.T Sawyer, founder of what is considered the world's first leech farm, quotes the good doctor in an article that appeared in the British Journal of Plastic Surgery:

Immediately after the transplant the tip of the nose
appeared chalk-white and started to change colour after a
few hours. Therefore, cold compressions were made and 20
leeches were applied to the surrounding area to soften the
developing inflammation, especially around the bridge of
the nose.

Today, leeches ("Hirudo medicinalis") are again being used in medicine, and are especially helpful when reattaching small multi-blood-vessel parts, like ears. In 2004, in fact, the FDA classified leeches as a medical device, the first of its kind: alive.

Live Science reports:

Leech saliva is made up of a potent cocktail of more than 30 different proteins that, among other things, helps to numb pain, reduce swelling and keep blood flowing.

In a recent paper published in the journal Pain, Dr. Andreas Michalsen and his colleagues demonstrate that a treatment of 2-3 locally applied leeches lessened pain in the knees of women suffering from osteoarthritis more effectively than a 30-day course of topical diclofenac, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug.

Let's hear it for the leech!

olaf at the book feast!

2008-07-16T10:13:00.001-07:00

My publicist at Algonquin wrote to let me know that Olaf and I were invited to the author feast at the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association's tradeshow in Portland this September. As soon as I know the exact dates I'll be going, I'll post them to the calendar. I'm excited! From the description, it sounds like I and a number of other writers are invited to answer questions and talk about our work at the book sellers' dinner, table to table rather than before an entire room, which is nice.

The Lobotomist

2008-07-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

"The Lobotomist," a documentary about Walter Freeman (master of the "ice-pick lobotomy") aired on PBS in January of this year , but I just came across it online. Wow! In addition to introducing Walter Freeman and his methods for curing mental illness, the documentary features testimonials from several patients/their descendants. The daughter of Ellen Ionesco, the first patient to receive a "transorbital lobotomy," describes Freeman: "He looked kindly... very gentle."

Jocelyn Rice writes in Discover:

By the mid-1940s, Freeman was touring the country performing dozens of ice-pick lobotomies each day. He used picks from his own kitchen and carpenter’s hammers. Sometimes, for kicks, he’d operate left-handed. Physicians who gathered to watch would throw up and pass out—but patients often got better. Freeman could turn people who were smearing feces on walls and cowering naked under furniture into calm and docile citizens.

Freeman refined the technique of Egas Moniz, who in turn, was inspired by the work of Gottlieb Burckhardt, who is mentioned in "The Siblings", one of the stories in DOCTOR OLAF VAN SCHULER'S BRAIN, which, I suppose, is why I'm writing about it here. Check out the documentary if you have a chance. It's broken into short chunks, perfect for those times when one is feeling brain dead...

First Olaf event!

2008-06-27T14:29:00.001-07:00

I recently received news that Olaf and I will be appearing at Keplers in Menlo Park on October 30. Although this may not end up being the *first* time I read, it is the first time I'm officially scheduled to do so. Woo! I have a lot of practicing ahead.

Details:
Thursday October 30, 7:30
Keplers
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA 94025

Searching for God in the Brain

2008-06-19T09:26:00.000-07:00

In 1664, Dr. Olaf van Schuler, protagonist of the first story in the book that bears his name, sliced open the heads of pigs, goats, and cows hoping to find the seat of the immortal soul. The soul resided in the brain, he believed, though he did not know exactly where. He poked and probed; he decided upon the pituitary gland.

Today, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania continue to search for the impact of higher forces on the brain. Injecting Tibetan Buddhist monks, nuns, and Pentecostals with radioactive isotopes and then scanning their brains, Dr. Newberg, a professor of radiology and psychiatry, hopes to identify how faith is manifest in brain activity.

According to the St. Petersberg Times:

The frontal lobes got especially busy. They're the part of the brain he calls the "attention area." The meditators had clearly tapped their frontal lobes to focus on their task.

He also saw the thalamus kick in. That's a pea-sized piece of the brain atop the brain stem that, among other things, sends sensory information to the frontal cortex, where much of our heavy thinking happens. Whatever was happening in meditation, the thalamus was making it feel very real.

The surprise was elsewhere, in the parietal lobe, the part of the brain that helps us orient ourselves in relation to things around us. Newberg discovered that the nuns and Buddhists had actually shut down that part of the brain, suspending their senses of space and time. It was then that they entered the peak of their transcendent experiences — altered states of "timelessness and spacelessness."

Does this mean that religious experience is "all in your head?" Dr. Newberg comments on this in the Global Spiral:

Imagine, for instance, that you are the subject of a brain imaging study. As part of this study, you have been asked to eat a generous slice of homemade apple pie. As you enjoy the pie, the brain scans capture images of the neurological activity in the various processing areas of the brain where input from your senses is being turned into the specific neural perceptions that add up to the experience of eating the pie: olfactory areas register the delightful aroma of apples and cinnamon, visual areas perceive the sight of the golden brown crust, centers of touch perceive the complex mix of crunchy and gooey textures, and the rich, sweet, satisfying flavors are processed in the areas responsible for taste. The SPECT brain scan would show all this activity in the same way that it revealed the brain activity of the Buddhists and the nuns, as blotches of bright colors on the scanner's computer screen. In a literal sense, the experience of eating the pie is all in your mind, but that doesn't mean the pie is not real, or that it is not delicious.

Newberg's next book, How God Changes Your Brain, comes out in March.