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 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, how we make decisions,
deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at
philosophy, music and art. 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.
