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Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments-using such low-tech tools such as cotton swabs, glasses of water, and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, and how we make decisions, deceive ourselves, and dream. Some of his most notable cases: A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time. Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier-the human mind-yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.
- Sales Rank: #6561360 in Books
- Published on: 2013-12-24
- Formats: Audiobook, CD, Unabridged
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 9
- Dimensions: 5.30" h x 1.10" w x 6.40" l, .56 pounds
- Running time: 10 Hours
- Binding: Audio CD
Amazon.com Review
What would you say about a woman who, despite stroke-induced paralysis crippling the entire left side of her body, insists that she is whole and strong--who even sees her left hand reach out to grasp objects? Freud called it "denial"; neurologists call it "anosognosia." However it may be labeled, this phenomenon and others like it allow us peeks into other mental worlds and afford us considerable insight into our own.
The writings of Oliver Sacks and others have shown us that we can learn much about ourselves by looking closely at the deficits shown by people with neurological problems. V.S. Ramachandran has seen countless patients suffering from anosognosia, phantom limb pain, blindsight, and other disorders, and he brings a remarkable mixture of clinical intuition and research savvy to bear on their problems. He is one of the few scientists who are able and willing to explore the personal, subjective ramifications of his work; he rehumanizes an often too-sterile field and captures the spirit of wonder so essential for true discovery. Phantoms in the Brain is equal parts medical mystery, scientific adventure, and philosophical speculation; Ramachandran's writing is smart, caring, and very, very funny.
Whether you're curious about the workings of the brain, interested in alternatives to expensive, high-tech science (much of Ramachandran's research is done with materials found around the home), or simply want a fresh perspective on the nature of human consciousness, you'll find satisfaction with Phantoms in the Brain. --Rob Lightner
From Publishers Weekly
In these unsettling tales from a neuroscientist every bit as quirky as the more famous Oliver Sacks, Ramachandran sets out his beliefs that no matter how bizarre the case, empirical, strikingly simple testing can illuminate the ways brain circuitry establishes "self." In a chatty, nearly avuncular style, he (along with his coauthor, a New York Times science writer) snatches territory from philosophers on how we think we know what we know. In one experiment, stroking an amputee's cheek produces sensations in his "phantom limb" because the part of the brain's map that once related to the lost limb has "invaded" the adjacent brain area that relates to the cheek. Unafraid to speculate, Ramachandran then moves a step closer toward indicating that the brain is not only a busy lump of genetically deemed-and-dying hard-wiring but an organ that can continuously "re-map" in response to new sensory information from the outside. Equally fascinating are Ramachandran's "mirror tricks" on amputees and paralyzed patients that begin to reveal how much the brain relies on context and comparison as well as on "inside" neural connectivity to form self. Perhaps most disquieting are beginnings of proof that much brain activity, including what we like to think of as uniquely human behavior, happens unbidden. There may be no escape from the un-Western conclusion that self is only a limited illusion. "De-throning man," as the author points out, is at the heart of most revolutionary scientific thought. Regrettably, his book sags in the middle as it drifts from these deft experiments into generalized musings on idiot-savants and phantom pregnancies, detracting from what is otherwise entertaining, tip-of-the-neurological-iceberg sleuthing. Photos and line drawings throughout. Author tour.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Neuroscientist Ramachandran looks at neurological disorders to help us understand brain function.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating
By Ruth Angela
This author is someone I had heard about for his work on Phantom Limbs. He seems to be getting closer to understanding the mind and how we "work" better than any other researchers out there. He has a curious mind and thank God for the environment Salk/ UCSD which allows him free reign to explore his curiosity and hunches. This is how science should be investigated.. simply and without massive expensive set ups, yet using innovative ideas to find REAL answers.
I love the style of writing. It is fast paced and never boring, even though it is about medical issues, it still reads like "Sherlock Holmes" wrote it... this is Dr. Ramachandran's nick name. There are case stories in this book that will keep you in cocktail chatter for months. Every page is a little more incredible than the previous one. All is written for the lay reader, without condescension. Highly recommended and just be warned--it is hard to put it down.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Eating an elephant
By Chares G. Muhle
Q How do you eat an elephant?
A One bite at a time.
Q How do you explain a system that is complex, convoluted and adaptive.
A Test small bites of stimulus and reaction to confirm or contradict your hypothesis.
Ramachandran and Blakeslee created this delightful book using humor, logic and simple tests to illuminate how the brain works and doesn't work. Readers are even invited to run their own test at home to confirm Rama's (his term) conclusions.
Why does an amputee deny her left arm is missing or her paralyzed arm belongs to her brother?
Such examples offer fertile areas to explore to find what specific brain cells seem related to such behavior.
Could we alter the perception of a missing arm using mirrors? The answer is "yes" and by doing so we learn a little more about our brain's adaptivity.
So what's going on when a person can square a fifteen digit number as fast as he can say the answer?
While these small bites offer small answers, many such bites shed light on big answers.
While I want to learn more about the brain, I suspect whatever book I select will be way too technical so I will just reread PITB again.
It's that good.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Really Stimulates Your Little Gray Cells
By R. Schultz
Like Oliver Sacks, Ramachandran tells of some startling neurological insights he's gained by examining unusual cases. These pages contain summary case histories of individuals who can't recognize faces - of individuals who deny that various body parts belong to them - of individuals who experience vivid hallucinations.
Many of Ramachandran's breakthrough theories though are based on his treatment of individuals who suffered from phantom pain after an amputation. In the course of probing this puzzling phenomenon, Ramachandran hit upon some ideas that have far-reaching implications. Studying this phenomenon allowed him to advance new theories about the way stimuli are received and mapped in the brain.
When a leg is amputated, the area of the brain that would normally register sense impressions from it is left without any incoming stimuli. That part of the brain sits expectant and hungry for some incoming messages. Neural connections in adjacent areas of the brain then sometimes expand, filling in the information vacuum. Those adjacent areas are ordinarily dedicated to registering sensation from unrelated parts of the body, such as the face. So when anyone touches the amputee's face, that sensation might be amplified and experienced as severe pain in a leg that is no longer there.
Ramachandran believes that this tendency of the brain to adapt and "fill-in" might be at the root of many neural dysfunctions. When a person loses his sight in a part of his visual field, surrounding neurons might elaborate and reach in to fill the void. When a person loses some aspect of neuronal processing that has to do with body image, other neurons from areas of adjacent functioning might reach in to offer sensation input. The borrowed processing mechanism doesn't always fit its functioning into a "normal," coherent sense of the world though. The result can be strange distortions of perception.
These ideas might explain all sorts of human folly - such as fetishes. Specifically, Ramachandran suggests that foot fetishes might arise because the sensation processing areas devoted to the feet and to the genitals typically lie adjacent to each other in the brain. Similarly, various kinds of body dysmorphic disorders, such as anorexia, might be traced to such take-overs.
This book was written in 1998. Ramachandran suggested many experiments that could be made to test his theories. I wonder how many have been done in the interim? I'm eager to check out any of his more recent writings to get updates on some of these questions.
He writes in an accessible style. What's more, he suggests a number of very simple, non-invasive techniques that people might experiment with to relieve themselves or family members of dangerous delusions. For example, he suggests spritzing cold water into the left ear of anorexics; he suggests using mirrors to help "neglect" patients recover an awareness of both sides of their body and of their environment.
The 35 pages of small-print footnotes at the end of the book might appear to be a chore that you'd be inclined to skip. But they serve as a good summary of the main text, and also contain many fascinating suggestions for further experiments that could either confirm or disprove the important ideas in this book.
Overall, this book is a real brain-teaser.
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