Like this answer in an Ask Metafilter thread, in which MeFi's resident board-certified neurologist explains just what's happening when the hero in an action movie "takes out" a bad guy with a blow to the back of the head:
It works!I love this stuff. Excellent example of medical writing for a general audience, by the way.
The thing that is happening is cerebral concussion. The sharp blow causes the skull to move rather quickly: the neck anteroflexing and anteriorly-subluxing somewhat for a total overall forward motion. The brain, being a squishy jello brain tightly fit inside a rigid bony jello mold, lags behind owing to inertia. In lagging, it gets squashed, first against the occiput; rebounds and begins to travel forward; and, then, when the skull decelerates at the end of its travel, it gets squashed against the frontal bone...
No comments:
Post a Comment