Hardcover ( )

Descriptions of some interesting disorders and lots of speculation about mirror neurons ( )

the first four chapters were brilliant. insightful, clear, humorous. then the author strayed beyond his expertise and into the roots of language, autism, art. here he left so many holes in his arguments, and used so much opinion in place of fact or even scientific speculation, that I ended up disappointed with the book. stop after the first four or five chapters and then skip to the last chapter and the epilogue for an excellent read. ( )

The author is a medical doctor with an interest in neuroscience research. He has conducted significant research and conducted experiments on some of his patients. His observations from the research and case studies leads to some insightful concepts. I believe that he is able to see correctly the function and interaction of centers of cognitive processing in the brain. I found the book educational and insightful. I strongly recommend this book. ( )

V.S. Ramachandran uses case studies to demonstrate the abilities of the brain. He describes the brain as having certain modules that accomplish tasks. Let us take the sense of vision as an example. With vision, you can have people that can see perfectly well, but they can't tell when things are moving. It is quite fascinating to read about all of the things that the brain can do.

So Ramachandran comes up with ways to show that these things are an actual reality for the patient or why these symptoms and situations occur. The tests that he comes up with for Synesthesia are really interesting. Apparently, at the time, it was not considered to be something real.

The book is divided into nine chapters, with each chapter discussing a different part that makes us human. Chapter one discusses phantom limbs and brain plasticity. Chapter two discusses seeing and all of the different modules involved. Chapter three is about synesthesia. Chapter four is about Mirror Neurons. Chapter five is about autism. Chapter six is about the fundamental basics of language acquisition. Chapter seven is about aesthetics and how art is appreciated. Chapter eight contains more about art and how universal it is. Chapter nine discusses introspection and how that came to be. ( )