Kassy's Blog.

Reflection on Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran Talk

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

This talk that we watched today was so interesting and amazingly cool that I even went and read about it on Wikipedia! Did I also mention my love for Wikipedia? Being my resource to basically everything? Wait, that's not on topic.

Well, the reason I thought this talk was so amazingly cool and interesting was because I'm kind of interested in psychology/philosophy and all that. But I learned a lot from this talk! Dr. Ramachandran covered 3 main mental disorders in this talk. Firstly he talked about the Capgras delusion, then he talked about the phantom limb, and lastly, he covered synesthesia. These disorders are rare but it was cool to hear about them, having not realized that the brain has such a vital role in our lives and if it was to be damaged, the sorts of symptoms that could come about.

The Capgras delusion is a disorder that may happen (in very rare cases) when the brain has suffered trauma, the person will look at their family member/s or loved one/s and think that their family member/loved one has been replaced by an identical imposter. I think I may have read something about this before although I am not entirely sure it's about the same thing.

The phantom limb is when an arm or leg is amputated, the patient still continues to feel the presence of that limb although they know that it has been amputated! This, I have never heard of before but it seems really interesting! Dr. Ramachandran came up with an ingenious solution to the problem by using a mirror box which enabled the brain to think that the "paralyzed phantom limb" was actually moving and although it may seem really silly and super cheap compared to digital simulation it worked for many people he tried it on! The patient puts their hand into one hole, and the "phantom" hand into the other hole, and when viewed from one angle, they are able to see two complete hands. By moving their normal unamputated limb into one hole and moving it, are therefore able to trick their brains into believing that their "paralyzed" phantom limb moved and through doing it repeatedly over a few weeks, they will be rid of their phantom limb and the phantom pain that may have come with it! I thought this was so smart and amazing!

As for synesthesia, I have heard about it before. And I thought his explanation to it was really interesting but the part I liked best was when he proved that EVERYONE has synesthesia by using two shapes and having the audience pretend that they were alien alphabet letters and telling us the way you would pronounce the two then asking which letter corresponded to the shape. Most of the people associated the shape with sharp, jagged edges to the word that sounded sharp and jagged. Then with that, he proved that his whole audience has synesthesia! It was all very cool.

I think from this talk, I've learned a lot and I think I would like to read more into the brain and how it works and maybe find out more about psychology. This talk was so amazing that it has made me really want to read about these things to do with the brain now!

Labels: anatomy

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