Neurologist Antione Dechard: A Summary
A mind freed of the pitfalls of emotion is presumed to be superior at decision making; the opposite, however, has been observed in those whose ‘emotional brains’ have been compromised (by disease, injury or otherwise). When Krulwich proposes his question to Neurologist Antione Dechard, Dechard tells them of a patient he called Elliot. Elliot was by all accounts a healthy, successive, and normal guy. Unfortunately, in 1982, doctors discovered a tumor in a part of his brain called the orbital frontal cortex. The tumor was surgically removed, but, according to Dechard, even as Elliot had a seemingly successful recovery something was strange about him. Radiolab guest, Jonah Leher, describes how Elliot would be overwhelmed by simple decision like