TENILLE BONOGUORE
Globe and Mail Update
January 4, 2008 at 2:04 PM EST

Cooking up a map of the mind

Dr. Randy McIntosh The knife slices into juicy flesh, liquid spilling over Randy McIntosh's hand. He flings another ingredient into the pan. When this researcher isn't using his brain to find ways to see into yours, he's in the kitchen, cooking up another original feast.

"The nice thing about cooking is you start with a way from going from this mess of ingredients to a meal, but along the way you might change things," he explains. "Despite what people think, that's how the brain works."

According to Dr. McIntosh, if one brain area is disrupted, others cover the gap, with varying degrees of success. Slurred speech after a stroke may not be due to the injury: It could be the brain's flawed effort to recover from injury. The brain reorganizes itself, but never in exactly the same way. "That's how cooking is. You don't put exactly the same amount of salt in each time, but the final meal is much the same," Dr. McIntosh says.

Cooking up a map of the mind

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