2023-05-17 17:15:08
During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, a man was shot in the head, but survived the tragedy. When he wakes up, however, he realizes that he “sees the world upside down”. The case of this man is one of the few to have advanced science, and in particular the theory on the functioning of the brain.
Very strange symptoms
The case of “patient M” is still studied by scientists today, as evidenced by a research report to be published in the journal Neurology in June 2023. Two neuropsychologists from the Guttmann Institute (Spain) have indeed returned to the case of this man who had been shot in the head during the Spanish Civil War. The individual had certainly not lost his life, but when he woke up, he saw the world upside down. In other words, his brain reversed the right and the left as well as the direction of the letters.
For patient M, people, but also objects thus seemed to stand on the side opposite to that on which they were actually located. However, this inversion concerned also hearing and touch. For example, if the man heard a noise coming from the right, he thought that this same noise was coming from the left. If someone touched his right arm, he thought the person was touching his left arm. Other very strange symptoms also appeared. Let us mention in particular visions of objects in triplicatea different perception of colors or even the impression that colors were detached from objects.
Brain functioning reviewed thanks to patient M
The bullet that Patient M had received had destroys the crests of his cerebral cortex, in the left parieto-occipital area (see diagram below). At the time, science considered that the brain was made up of small “boxes” independent of each other and that touching one might generate a cerebral deficit. However, the patient M did not seem to have any particular problems in his daily life until the day he claimed to have seen men working upside down on a scaffold.
Already at the time, the doctor Justo Gonzalo (who had followed patient M) thought that this case would advance science. However, scientists have indeed had to revise their theories on the functioning of the brain. After the first studies on the subject, the brain was finally considered to be dynamic or even as a communicating whole. The doctor at the time had already understood that brain damage does not destroy specific functions. On the other hand, they affect the balance of a whole set of functions. Patient M, who died in the 1990s, whose identity has never been revealed to the public, therefore contributed greatly to advancing the field of neurology.
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