Dr. Reid Thompson takes us on an expedition into the layers of the brain, opening up the windows of the mind using technological advances in the tools that neurosurgeons use.

Dr. Reid Thompson is chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He realized as a medical student that by pursuing a career in neurosurgery, he could think about the brain every day. What he didn't fully realize then was that 20 years later, he would still gaze on the brain with a sense of wonder. In this presentation, he will convey this sense of wonder by describing what it is like to operate on the human brain.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.