Masud Husain talks to Lucy Dallas

What makes us who we are? Is it our background that creates our identities? Or our families, where we lived, how we were brought up and educated? The answer is all of the above, but more fundamental than any of these is our brain. Neurologist Masud Husain uses real-life examples of patients to show us how our brains create our identity and how that identity can be changed by brain dysfunction. Among his patients is a man who ran out of words, and a woman who stopped caring what others thought of her. Husain is professor of neurology and cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oxford and a practising clinician with over 30 years’ experience. He talks to TLS arts editor Lucy Dallas.