A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness : From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers

Rating:
Summary: Praise for A BRIEF TOUR OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
Review: "Vintage Ramachandran, packed with ideas that are bold, irreverent, original and ingenious. People who have never thought much about the brain will be intrigued, but so will those who, like me, have spent most of their lives thinking about the brain. It is truly a breath of fresh air."
--David Hubel, Nobel Laureate, Harvard University, author of Eye, Brain and Vision

"An extraordinary book by a remarkable scientist! Ramachandran is in many ways the modern Paul Broca, the great French neurologist who opened up the biological analysis of higher mental functions by studying patients with brain lesions. In a similar vein Ramachandran has used the study of patients to elucidate a range of fascinating mental functions. His insights have stimulated discussions in neuroscience over the last 25 years. Here is Ramachandran at his best; his lucid and most creative."
--Eric R. Kandel, M.D., Nobel Laureate, Columbia University

"Ramachandran is a latter-day Marco Polo, journeying the silk road of science to strange and exotic Cathays of the mind. He returns laden with phenomenological treasures... which, in his subtle and expert telling, yield more satisfying riches of scientific understanding."
--Richard Dawkins, Oxford University, author of The Blind Watchmaker

"An unusually clever neuroscientist explains baffling cases in neurology and neuro-psychiatry and concludes that brain science can now resolve many of the age-old quandaries of philosophers. A thought-provoking, wonderful read."
--Roger Guillemin, Nobel Laureate, The Salk Institute

"Today we're going through a revolution in neuroscience. The tidal wave of new research can be overwhelming, but V.S. Ramachandran, drawing on his own pioneering work on patients, succeeds in creating a witty, elegant introduction to the mysteries and revelations to be found within our skulls."
--Carl Zimmer, author of Soul Made Flesh



Rating:
Summary: A brief tour of human consciousness (Ramachandra)
Review: A fantastic book full of wisdom and humor. Dr. Ramachandra's experiments are
ingenious ways of understanding the human mind. I am going to give copies to
"three" of my family members this holiday season. His ideas on Art are surely
to start some arguments in my family, but I guess that's what holidays are
for...

Rating:
Summary: A practicing physician's opinion
Review: A fascinating look at how the study of the brain offers insights into art, music, psychiatry, philosophy, and language. Very engaging. As a physician, I find neurology intriguing, but frustrating, given the rudimentary level of our knowledge base in this area compared to other medical fields. Ramachandran describes the links between science and the humanities with such enthusiasm that I have renewed optimism for the tremendous potential for future study in this area.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, engaging, provocative...
Review: The Reith Lectures 2003 on which the book is based are available (both text and audio) on the BBC website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/). The author is a great speaker... Listen to him and you'll soon get hungry for more!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/

Rating:
Summary: Neuropathology and the Mind
Review: This book is an expansion and revision of a series of talks that the author gave as the 2003 Reith Lectures on BBC Radio. The BBC title was "The Emerging Mind." To summarize the book in a few inaccurate words, the author presents the contributions that neuropathology and the study of unusual perceptual modes like synaesthesia make to the study of the mind considered as a collection of brain structures that process sensory data and the self considered as a metarepresentation within such a mind.

Despite the complex ideas, the discussion is lucid and engaging. Dr. Ramachandran has the courage to suggest new hypotheses and to propose experiments to test them, and he also has a sense of humor.

The author writes in the Introduction, "As my colleague Oliver Sacks said of one of his books: `the real book is in the endnotes, Rama,`" which is certainly true of this edition. There are 45 pages of endnotes for 112 pages of text. The endnotes contain the most interesting discussions and the clearest exposition, which is why I was very disappointed to see that endnotes 11 and 12, the final pair of endnotes in the last chapter, appear to be missing from the Endnotes section. I would really like to read what the author has to say about Anton's syndrome and hypnotic induction. Perhaps the author or publisher could post these on a website somewhere.

The Glossary in the back of the book is substantially the same as the one provided on the BBC website for the original talks. Because of the nature of the subject, it contains both technical scientific terms like _phosphorylation_ and some philosophical terms like _qualia_.
The Glossary does not contain the term _exaption_, not used in the text of original talks but used several times in the book, which I found difficult.

The author, who names Shiva Dakshinamurthy, Lord of Gnosis, as one of the dedicatees of this volume, grew up in Thailand and received his medical degree in India; yet he may mention South Asian philosophy less in this book than the average Western writer who produces a book on the brain for popular consumption. Laboratory experiments drive Dr. Ramachandran's speculation. Nevertheless, because he suggests the relationship between _qualia_ and underlying anatomy and chemistry is not entirely arbitrary, some of us may wish to conclude that introspection is more valuable than is often supposed. The author also writes about the cross-cultural aspects of art, suggesting that there may be some universals of aesthetics; I found this discussion provocative, but not entirely persuasive.

Of course, younger readers who are eager to know more about neuroscience and the directions that such research will proceed in the future should read this book; moreover, older readers like myself with aging brains and perceptual systems may find their need to read this book is urgent and immediate.