the girl had alzheimer's disease on brain on fire.
what did the girl have on brain on fire?
alzheimer's disease
one of the doctors says to her parents that she is possibly suffering from schizophrenia. the doctor tells them that if susannah's behavior does not improve, she will be transferred to another hospital, where they can deal with psychological problems. susannah becomes catatonic, and dr. souhel najjar is asked to help in investigating her case. najjar has susannah draw a clock. she draws it with all of the numbers (1–12) on the right side of the clock, leading the doctor to believe that the right hemisphere of her brain is swollen and inflamed. najjar has her undergo a brain biopsy in order to take cells from her brain for diagnosis. it is found that susannah has anti-nmda receptor encephalitis and najjar describes it to her parents and stephen as her "brain is on fire". dr. najjar prescribes her a treatment, which leads to a slow, but full recovery of her cognitive abilities.
brain on fire (film)
despite its benefits, brain tissue requires a large amount of calories, hence a main constraint in selection for larger brains is calorie intake. a greater calorie intake can support greater quantities of brain tissue. this is argued to explain why human brains can be much larger than other apes, since humans are the only ape to engage in food processing. the cooking of food has influenced genes to the extent that, research suggests, humans cannot live without cooking. a study on 513 individuals consuming long term raw diets found that as the percentage of their diet which was made up of raw food and/or the length they had been on a diet of raw food increased, their bmi decreased. this is despite access to many non thermal processing, like grinding, pounding or heating to 48 deg. c. (118 deg. f). with approximately 86 billion neurons in the human brain and 60–70 kg body mass, an exclusively raw diet close to that of what extant primates have would be not viable as, when modelled, it is argued that it would require an infeasible level of more than nine hours of feeding everyday. however, this is contested, with alternative modelling showing enough calories could be obtained within 5–6 hours per day. some scientists and anthropologists point to evidence that brain size in the homo lineage started to increase well before the advent of cooking due to increased consumption of meat and that basic food processing (slicing) accounts for the size reduction in organs related to chewing. cornélio et al. argues that improving cooperative abilities and a varying of diet to more meat and seeds improved foraging and hunting efficiency. it is this that allowed for the brain expansion, independent of cooking which they argue came much later, a consequence from the complex cognition that developed. yet this is still an example of a cultural shift in diet and the resulting genetic evolution. further criticism comes from the controversy of the archaeological evidence available. some claim there is a lack of evidence of fire control when brain sizes first started expanding. wrangham argues that anatomical evidence around the time of the origin of "homo erectus" (1.8 million years ago), indicates that the control of fire and hence cooking occurred. at this time, the largest reductions in tooth size in the entirety of human evolution occurred, indicating that softer foods became prevalent in the diet. also at this time was a narrowing of the pelvis indicating a smaller gut and also there is evidence that there was a loss of the ability to climb which wrangham argues indicates the control of fire, since sleeping on the ground needs fire to ward off predators. the proposed increases in brain size from food processing will have led to a greater mental capacity for further cultural innovation in food processing which will have increased digestive efficiency further providing more energy for further gains in brain size. this positive feedback loop is argued to have led to the rapid brain size increases seen in the "homo" lineage.
dual inheritance theory