Coming to Our Senses - A Boy Who Learned to See, a Girl Who Learned to Hear, and How We All

"We think of perception as a passive, mechanical process, as if our eyes are cameras and our ears microphones. But as neurobiologist Susan R. Barry argues, perception is a deeply personal act. Our environments, our relationships, and our actions shape and reshape our senses throughout our liveslives. This idea is no more apparent than in the cases of people who gain senses as adults. Barry tells the stories of Liam McCoy, practically blind from birth, and Zohra Damji, born deaf, in the decade following surgeries that restored their senses. As Liam and Zohra learned entirely new ways of being, Barry discovered an entirely new model of the nature of perception. Coming to Our Senses is a celebration of human resilience and a powerful reminder that, before you can really understand other people, you must first recognize that their worlds are fundamentally different from your own. "--Publisher's description.

About the author

Susan R. Barry is professor emeritus of biology and neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she researched stereovision, plasticity, and coordination. She's written for and been covered by the New York Times, LA Times, Big Think, NPR's Morning Edition and Fresh Air, and elsewhere. You might know Barry as "Stereo Sue," a nickname bestowed by Oliver Sacks when he wrote about her for a New Yorker essay that was later anthologized in The Mind's Eye. She lives in Massachusetts.

Summary

An inspiring story of gaining new senses in adulthood

Foreword

An inspiring story of gaining new senses in adulthood

Product details

• Authors: Susan Barry, Susan R. Barry
• Publisher: Basic Books Inc.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2021
• EAN: 9781541675155
• ISBN: 978-1-5416-7515-5
• No. of pages: 272
• Subjects: Guides; Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > Nature, technology > Biographies, autobiographies; SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Medical (incl. Patients), Biology, life sciences, Neurosciences, Biography: science, technology & medicine, Biography: science, technology and medicine