The Tell-Tale Brain: Unlocking the Mystery of Human Nature - Softcover

V. S. Ramachandran

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0434020249 ISBN 13: 9780434020249

Publisher: Cornerstone, 2011

Synopsis

* V.S. Ramachandran has exploded the boundaries of modern science - so much so that he has been praised by Richard Dawkins as a latter-day Marco Polo.* A specialist in brain damage, he is famous for an instinctive, intuitive approach to neurological disorders that has led him to successfully 'amputate' phantom limbs, as well as solving the riddles of apotemnophilia (an obsession with self-amputation), and Capgrass syndrome (where patients who are in all other respects fully recovered become convinced that their loved ones are imposters).This new book will explore why the human brain is so unique and how it became so enchantingly complex. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about the brain and how it evolved. Along the way we hear stories that are by turns moving, funny, tragic and disturbing, but always utterly fascinating.

About this title

About the Author

V. S. Ramachandran is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness.

Review

Ramachandran has written an astonishing book. His humanity, humor and scientific genius inform every passage. The Tell-Tale Brain is a veritable Voyage of the Beagle through the terrain of brain science and psychology.--Nicholas Humphrey, author of "Seeing Red" Starred Review. A physician (like Oliver Sacks, a neurologist) as well as a researcher, Ramachandran uses his neurology patients predicaments to inspire inquiries into how we see and know, the origins of language, the mental basis of civilization, how we conceive of and assess art, and how the self is constructed. Always careful to point out when he is speculating rather than announcing research findings, he is also prompt to emphasize why his speculations, or theories, are not just of the armchair variety but can be put to the test because of what neuroscience has already discovered about the active structures of the human brain. A masterpiece. The best of its kind and beautifully crafted. Alluring story telling, building to a penetrating understanding of what it is to be uniquely human. Ramachandran is the foremost pioneer the Galileo of neurocognition.--Allan Snyder, FRS, Director of the Centre for the Mind No one is better than V. S. Ramachandran at combining minute, careful observation with ingenious experiments and bold, adventurous theorizing. The Tell-Tale Brain is Ramachandran at his best, a profoundly intriguing and compelling guide to the intricacies of the human brain.--Oliver Sacks, author of "The Mind s Eye" Ramachandran is the modern wizard of neuroscience. In The Tell-Tale Brain, we see the genius at work, tackling extraordinary cases, many of which mark turning points in neuroscientific knowledge. We see him hypothesizing, experimenting, failing, having epiphanies, experimenting, succeeding. In this utterly entertaining account, we see how these fascinating cases fit together, and how he uses them to explain, from a Darwinian point of view, how our brains, though evolved from those of other animals, become neurologically distinct and fundamentally human.--Norman Doidge, M.D., author of "The Brain That Changes Itself"

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornerstone
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0434020249
• ISBN 13: 9780434020249
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 357