Three of the most life-altering words to hear from a physician are inoperable, malignant, and tumor. One of the most common, but insidious, malignant brain tumor diagnoses is Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) (American Cancer Society, 2019). With an average survival rate of less than 15 months from diagnosis, GBM is particularly intractable to treatment and quickly spreads to surrounding neuroepithelial tissue, impeding blood supply, which renders chemotherapy even less effective.

Adderall. It’s a drug that has become so familiar since it hit the market in 1977 that most people recognize the name immediately. But why would our culture foster such knowledge of a prescription drug used to treat Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?

When we look up to see the sky crossed by a white trace, we can follow the white vine of water-vapor to its seeding source, the burning engine of a jet. What if we could similarly trace the thread-like connections of the brain? Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a technique for imaging the brain that allows us to describe the structures of the brain’s connections by contouring the diffusion, or directional movement, of water.

Picture yourself building a skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles with nothing but titanium-reinforced I-beams and concrete that is so brittle, even the slightest touch could make the foundation shatter. This is analogous to what spine surgeons are facing when patients with osteoporosis are in need of spinal fusion and/or fixation from trauma, degeneration, or spinal stenosis.

Although the idea of and experiences associated with pain leave people with negative perceptions of it, feeling pain is essential for human survival. The experience of pain within the human body serves as an “alarm system,” and allows humans to recognize, react to, and in the future, avoid stimuli that create pain in the first place. Nociception is the process through which the sensory nervous system senses and perceives painful stimuli, which then allows for the triggering of appropriate reactions.