Defending the Cavewoman: And Other Tales of Evolutionary Neurology

by Harold Klawans

Noted neurologist Harold Klawans presents thirteen thought-provoking clinical tales describing a range of neurological problems and how he figured out what caused them. Cases include a young girl with arrested language acquisition, a peculiar case of "painful foot and moving toe syndrome," and an aphasic orchestra conductor. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Psychology, Health, Biology, Neuroscience, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Harold L. Klawans was an academic neurologist who launched a parallel career as a writer. Klawans was born in Chicago. After graduating with an M.D. degree from the University of Illinois in 1962, Dr. Klawans became a neurologist and professor of neurology and pharmacology at Rush Medical College.

Reviews

[Nataša · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lijepo napisano i izuzetno poučno, što je zajedno čini odličnom i zanimljivom.

[Patrizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slučajevi prikazani na zanimljiv način, s teorijskim objašnjenjem i podlogom.

[Paul Wolinsky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just an excellent, very interesting book from many perspectives. The book takes into account evolutionary biological, but also anthropological and paleontological perspectives in its treatments of various psychological or neurological disorders, mainly, including Parkinsonism, Huntington's Chorea, aphasia, a dietary disorder which is the result of the storage of too much phytanic acid -- found in leafy vegetables, and which causes an extremely rare disease called something like "Refsum's disease."

These are just some of the highlights of the book. What is possibly most enjoyable is Harold Klawan's patient and reasoned discussions of his understandings of how nature "works," to produce behavior. Some of the mechanisms Klawan's describes are Darwinian, whereas, like in the case of mad-cow disease, Jacob-Creudzfeldt disease and kuru, the mechanisms involved in disease production are essentially man-made (anthropogenic). The discussion of how bovine spongiform encephalopathy is caused is fascinating and noteworthy, and is an excellent example of how Klawans' is able to build a case for how human and biological systems interact.

In each case history that Klawans presents, he, like his late compatriot Oliver Sacks, presents the details of the case presentation, and then analyzes the case using what he has gleaned from his educational background, medical training, and the particular ways in which his mind has been shaped by his educational and medical experience.

Not only was this book interesting, it was great fun.

[Greg Talbot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Klawans 'writtes in a way that allows for compassion and neurological understanding'. These short stories are examinations into her patients lives in a thoughtful way that mix biology, anatomy and human interest stories. Not unlike the stories of Oliver Sacks I imagine, although I confess I have not read Sacks work at this time.

"A Lucy of My Own" bridges the fossils of Lucy, one of the earliest ancestors we've found, to the story to one of her first patients who had seizures. She describes the sensations of the patients and the neurology reasons why these things were happening. "I Never Read a Movie I liked" is another great story, an erudite Professor, loses ability to read, and has to find a new way to explore that passion. All these variations in human beings, and the extremes of functioning are a reminder of the complexity of our species.

[Lora · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you interested in how the brain works, and the most plausible theory I've heard yet as to why we evolved the way we did, this is quite interesting. Klawans hearkens back to Oliver Sachs quite a bit, with each chapter presenting an interesting or puzzling case in neurology. I especially enjoyed the chapters that had to do with how we learn language, reading, and even music.

So what is this theory of why we evolved as we did? Well, let's just say the human race wouldn't be where we are now if it wasn't for the females.


Thanks to Dr. Morris for the gift - I wouldn't have picked it up otherwise.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of essays. Klawans is often compared to Oliver Sacks. In one piece, Klawans gives us his own take on the comparison built around a lunch date the two doctors had.

I am curious as to how much Klawans disguises the identity of his patients. In one of the pieces he suggests that a patient may have murdered her father. If other details are true, it would be easy for even casual acquaintances to identify to woman. Interesting story though!

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

interesting case studies. bad writing and too much ego.

[Noor Amor · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Defending the Cavewoman: And Other Tales of Evolutionary Neurology” is an intriguing and passionate book about a young man who devotes a huge part of his life to his patients. During the whole course of this book, Harold Klawans, explains to the readers, how the nervous system works, the divisions of the nervous system, as well as our five senses. Klawans focuses on different topics during different parts of the book but he first starts off with how the nervous system functions. The nervous system receives information about what is going on in and out of your body and sends signals telling your body how to respond. Also, it directs how your body move and helps it maintain homeostasis. Klawans explains that it is because of your nervous system that you know what is happening in the environment around you. Without your nervous system, you wouldn’t be able to feel, taste, smell or move, since it directs everything in your body. Also, our nervous system allows us to have a stimulus which is any change or signal in the environment that can make an organism react. Without our nervous system our body wouldn’t be able to respond to anything that’s going on in the environment. Klawans explains that the nervous system helps maintain homeostasis by directing the body to respond to the information is gets. Later in the book, Klawans gets more scientific and explains what the neuron is. As all the other systems in your body, the nervous system as well includes organs, tissues and cells. The cells that carry information through your nervous system are called neurons or nerve cells, and the message they carry is called a nerve impulse. A neuron has a large cell body that contains the nucleus, dendrites and an axon. The dendrites carry impulses toward the neuron’s cell body. The axon carries impulses away from the cell the cell body. Axons and dendrites are sometimes called nerve fibers. A bundle of nerve fibers is called a nerve. There are three kinds of neurons found in the body- the sensory neurons, the interneurons, and the motor neurons, each have a different job.

While reading this resourceful book, the readers learn various and numerous new facts about the nervous system, and discovers things happening in one’s body they didn’t know before. As I have mentioned before, the sensory, interneurons and motor neurons are involved when a sound is being heard from your ears. The sensory neurons is “turned on” when the sound is heard and a nerve impulse is triggered. Then, from the sensory neurons, the nerve impulse is passed to interneurons in the brain, and the nerve impulse passes through numerous motor neurons, and the organism finally hears the sound. Klawans also teaches the readers that for a nerve impulse to be carried at a synapse, which is the junction where one neuron can transfer an impulse to another structure, it must cross the space between the axon and the next structure. The axon tips release chemicals that carry the impulse across the gap. Before the end of his book, Klawans talks about the divisions of the nervous system. First, the central nrvous system consists of the brain and the spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system includes all of the nerves located outside the central nervous system. The central nervous system is the control center of the body, and receives all information about what is happening inside and outside your body. The brain, is located in part of the central nervous system and controls most functions in the body. The spinal cord is te thick column of nervous tissue that links the brain to most of the nerves in the peripheral nervous system. He also gets very scientific and talks to us about the three main regions of the brain that receive and process information. These are the cerebrum which controls the senses and our movement, and carries out the processes needed for our body to function, the cerebellum which directs the actions of your muscles and helps you keep balance, and finally the brain stem which controls your body’s involuntary actions. Also, the spinal cord is the link between your brain and the peripheral nervous system which consists of a network of nerves that branch out from the central nervous system and connect it to the rest of the body, and it is involved in both involuntary and voluntary actions. Last but not least, the last thing Klawans discusses in his book are our senses. As we all know, human’s five senses are sight, smell, touch, hear, and taste, and he first explains the concept of vision. Your eyes respond to the stimulus of light therefore your pupils get bigger which enables you to see clearly. Your ears are the sense organs that respond to the stimulus of sound and the ears convert the sound to nerve impulses which are later sent to your brain which gives a signal which enables you to hear. On the other hand, the senses of smell and taste work close together since both depend on chemicals in food or in the air since these trigger “responses in receptors” in your nose or mouth.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone having the desire to learn more about science and what is going on inside your organism in this very second. This book would also be recommended to Middle schoolers, as well as science teachers, and children wanting to become cultivated and have more knowledge about the human body. Also, if you are hesitating on what you would like to be in the future, this book might open your eyes on various things such as the fact that maybe you would want to be a doctor about a certain speciality. Most people might think reading about nonfiction or science might be boring, but once you find something adequate for your interests and that isn’t very difficult to understand, it can be very passionate. Although, to read this book I think the reader should have basic prior knowledge since if you don’t know the basics of the human body, it would be complicated to understand the basics of the nervous system and understand difficult terms. Also, I think it is very important to state that after reading this book, you definitely have more background knowledge on the human body and especially the nervous system. As one can see, this book would be recommended to a large number of people, since it is resourceful and teaches the reader a lot.

[Bree · Rating 5 out of 5]

Klawans tends to be a little denser and less narrative at times than Oliver Sacks, but I still really enjoyed this book. It was published posthumously as a collection of essays, which is probably why it doesn't feel quite as cohesive to me as some of his other books.

The reason I still gave it 5 stars even though it isn't perfection is that there are so few neurologist cum authors out there. I think anyone into neuroscientific narratives would find it very worthwhile.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being called "tales of evolutionary neurology" it has little evolution in there. The book reads as more of a series of vignettes about different conditions without drawing much of a coherent picture. It differs from Sacks "hat" book in the type of tale, with this focussing more on problems of a physical nature, whereas the other deals more in the effects of such problems on the mind and perception, so they do seem to complement each other well.

[Christine Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read this book a few years ago and was impressed by how well the Dr. explained it. Now reading it for a second time I realize how he explains the brain, evolution and how nurture has made us what we are. I wish the man were still alive so I could hear more of neurology and see if he would have the insights he had in this book.

I thank him for defending cave-women. The book is quite technical and may not be for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Tráese · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a bit of a science dweeb and mesmerized by the workings of the brain and how evolution, along with genetics has played a role in our ever-developing gray matter- fascinating!

Klawans dedication to his patients along with his endless curiosity are to be missed, but at least his work lives on to inspire others!

-cheers

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of case studies by a prominent neurologist. Not quite as entertaining as Oliver Sacks (who the author knew and seems to have envied). The stories are meant to demonstrate points about epilepsy, aphasia, various movement disorders, music vs language, prions, Huntington's Chorea, and something--I didn't quite get--called "spandrels." A worthwhile read.

[jegphd · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is interested in neurology and how the brain functions, this book, written by a neurologist, is fascinating re the vignettes he uses to explain how the brain works. Mostly an expert in Parkinsons and move disorders.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as fun as Oliver Sacks' stuff, but interesting cases anyway. Lots more science than I expected--some of which I skipped right over! But I have a clearer understanding of our evolutionary past. This guy's a big believer in women being the "civilizing " influence in our past as a species.

[Ruth Storm · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite books. It made me want to become a neurologist until I met pre-med students at Berkeley. It made me appreciate, respect and love the human brain.

[Deja · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book.. As it is said on the back cover, Klawans so easily tells his stories and teaches us about evolutionary approach to medicine... I enjoyed every page :)

[Zrinka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, you can almost read it like a crime novel. (In his views of the Cavewoman he comes close to Elaine Morgan, although he never mentions her.)

[Kurtbg · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all about the brain.