Experimental Blog #63

Comments on "The Tell-Tale Brain - A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human"
by V S Ramachandran

This author, and others, say that our human brains are "made up" of about 100 billion nerve cells, and he goes on to say that the "number of permutations" of the connections, or synapes, between the nerve cells leads to a "possible number of brain states" that "easily exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." So, doesn't it seem that no matter how much we learn about our brains, we will not very likely understand them?
However, a large part of V S Ramachandran's book is based on many elaborations of the significance of what are called "mirror neurons."
The author also writes some of his most interesting paragraphs in his book explaining the roughly 1000 year old Hindoo sculptures that he says have been unjustly criticized and underappreciated by "Westerners."
In contrast perhaps, more than once Ramachandran mentions "sightings" of Elvis Presley and Richard Nixon's nose and bushy eyebrows. Some scientifically questionable remarks, this is supposed to be a scientific book, include; "folie a deux, in which two people, such as Bush and Cheney, share each other's madness," and "An autistic child may be...still..capable of other abstract distinctions {such as "What's the difference between a Democrat and a Republican, other than IQ?"}.
The only respect or appreciation for religion, or religious ideas, that the author expresses seem to be for Hinduism, although he never uses the words Hindoo or Hinduism.
V S Ramachandran only once refers to Temple Grandin, as "the famous high-functioning autist and writer.." He does not say what she is famous for, but besides designing better and very widely used slaughterhouses, Temple Grandin is well known for her very exceptional writing about animals and some aspects of psychiatry, such as the long term consequences of chemotherapy.
It was a little bit alarming to read that V S Ramachandran hopes that "someday" he will meet a patient with a certain kind of brain damage that is caused by a stroke in a certain part of their brain, so that he can test one of his hypotheses.