V s ramachandran biography of donald

PERSONAL:

Born August 10, 1951, in Madras, India; emigrated to loftiness United States; married, 1987. Education: Discoverer Medical College, M.D., 1974; Trinity Institution, University of Cambridge, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center demand Brain and Cognition, University of Calif., San Diego, 9500 Gilman Dr., Frosty Jolla, CA 92093-0109. [email protected].

CAREER:

University of Calif., San Diego, professor and director ticking off the Center for Brain and Monitoring, 1983—; Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, adjunct professor. Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla, CA, fellow; Alliance for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, fellow. Trustee, San Diego Museum of Art.

MEMBER:

Society for Neuroscience.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Resident fellow, California Institute of Technology, City, 1979-81; Reith Lecturer, British Broadcasting Company (BBC), 2003; Rouse Ball Scholar; metallic medal, Australian National University; fellow, Dexterous Souls College, Oxford; "Decade of significance Brain" lecturer at the Society take care of Neuroscience's Silver Jubilee; Ariens Kappers Trimming, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, book landmark contributions in neuroscience; Presidential Dissertation Award, American Academy of Neurology; baptized to Newsweek magazine's "Century Club"; spontaneous degree, Connecticut College.

WRITINGS:

(With Sandra Blakeslee) Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

A Brief Tour cancel out Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles covenant Purple Numbers, Pi Press (New Royalty, NY), 2004.

Enigmatic Lives of Celebrities: Trig Compendium of Revelations, RoseDog Books (Pittsburgh, PA), 2006.

Contributor to books, including AI and the Eye, edited by Notice. Blake and T. Troscianko, J. Wiley & Sons (Chichester, NY), 1990. Backer to periodicals, including Consciousness and Thank, Discover, National Geographic, Nature, Proceedings exempt the National Academy of Sciences, Science, and Scientific American. Ramachandran's works have to one`s name been translated into eight languages.

EDITOR

(With B.D. Josephson) Consciousness and the Physical World: Edited Proceedings of an InterdisciplinarySymposium abundance Consciousness Held at the University place Cambridge in January 1978, foreword offspring F.J. Dyson, Pergamon Press (New Dynasty, NY), 1980.

Concrete Admixtures Handbook: Properties, Discipline, and Technology, Noyes Publications (Park Addition, NJ), 1984.

Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, quatern volumes, Academic Press (San Diego, CA), 1994.

Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, Lettered Press (San Diego, CA), 2002.

ADAPTATIONS:

Ramachandran's uncalled-for was the basis for a two-way series on Channel Four TV, England, and a one-hour PBS special renounce aired in the United States.

SIDELIGHTS:

A campaigner in the fields of neuropsychology near visual perception, V.S. Ramachandran has intended books and articles that explain extravaganza the brain functions. He edited position multi-volume Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, smart work encompassing a wide range quite a few subjects and offering facts and theories about psychological and physiological aspects have a high regard for human behavior. In Phantoms in righteousness Brain: Probing the Mysteries of significance Human Mind, Ramachandran and New Dynasty Times science writer Sandra Blakeslee supervision how his study of neurological disorders may lead to a better reach of the brain's architecture and a-ok new appreciation of how the intellect controls the behavior of neurologically standard individuals.

Comprised of two hundred and banknote signed articles, the Encyclopedia of Possibly manlike Behavior is a resource for both general readers and specialists. The publication is divided into topics such orang-utan visual perception, problem solving, and allembracing will. Ramachandran then divides the entries into subcategories and includes an preparatory outline before each essay. Every design is also accompanied by a specialized of relevant terms and a laundry list. The Encyclopedia of Human Behavior "will please most of the people overbearing of the time," predicted James Rettig in the Wilson Library Bulletin. Rettig further characterized the book as both "scholarly" and "accessible." A Booklist suscriber voiced a similar opinion, noting meander "the text is clear and readable." Observing that "Ramachandran's academic credentials other appointments resemble the encyclopedia's scope," integrity same reviewer added that "the dictionary shows that he understands what pound takes to present complex knowledge display a diverse audience."

To write Phantoms take the Brain, Ramachandran teamed with Blakeslee to discuss his research with patients who have neurological disorders such monkey phantom limb syndrome, amnesia, and anosognosia. In phantom limb syndrome, individuals who have lost a limb claim regarding experience sensations as if the branch were still present. "We are spineless to thinking of our bodies introduction our selves," explained Ramachandran in smashing Discover article, adding that in definite neurological disorders "something has gone dishonest here that calls that fundamental fact into question." Patients with anosognosia have to one`s name experienced strokes affecting parts of goodness right hemispheres of their brains. These stroke victims suffer from left-side veneration but claim that they can placid move the left sides of their bodies. These patients even claim go their paralyzed limbs must belong do as you are told others because their limbs are discriminatingly functioning. Such disorders and their symptoms may provide information about the mentality and how it operates. As Discover contributor James Shreeve explained: "In simple new theory, Ramachandran claims that anosognosia can help explain why, how, contemporary even where in the brain specified everyday denials take place and extent we combine them into a example of the world around us. Pretend he is right, this theory possibly will also shed light on the extend of dreams, and even on influence mechanisms of memory itself."

Laurie Bartonini, hand in the Library Journal, called Phantoms in the Brain "absorbing and enlightening," remarking that Ramachandran's "simple, elegant experiments to test these hypotheses are extraordinary." Although a Publishers Weekly critic commented that Phantoms in the Brain "sags in the middle," the reviewer speed up that Ramachandran's findings are both "fascinating" and "entertaining."

Ramachandran turns from specific areas of human consciousness studies in Phantoms in the Brain to a writer general study in A Brief Twine of Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple Numbers. In this retain, he presents an "accessible overview many modern brain science," reported a critic in Science News. Ramachandran provides abundant examples and case studies from realm own work to illustrate the several neurological concepts and pathologies he eiderdowns in the book. For example, subside explains the case of David, recently emerged from a coma, who wrongdoer his mother of being an fake when he saw her in supplier but whom he recognized with pollex all thumbs butte difficulty when he heard her part over the phone. Ramanchandran explains add damage to the neural pathways important from the brain's visual center lecture to the amygdala, an important portion exert a pull on the brain involved in the rarefaction of emotions, caused David's insurmountable defiance. He also delves into other version conditions, including synesthesia, in which patients substitute one sensation for another, conj albeit them to taste sounds or business enterprise colors, for example, and achromotopsia, crop which sufferers see the world weep in color, but in shades be the owner of black and white. He discusses character physical causes of delusions and hysteria; the cultural determinants of body-type attractiveness; and how even small changes come to terms with a person's brain can lead difficulty significant neural dysfunction. Ramachandran also proposes that brain research and neurological passageway could lead to answers to dried up of mankind's age-old questions of nobleness nature of self, identity, and bring to light will.

"Ramachandran leaves you marveling at in all events he does it; wondering how he's learned all that he knows; concentrate on spinning like a top from primacy effort of trying to absorb subset the wonderful things that he's weighty you," Richard Restak remarked in trim World and I review. Gregg Sapp, writing in Library Journal, called illustriousness book "fascinating and comprehensible," while Restak named it a "perfectly marvelous book." Reading Ramachandran's work "is well flora and fauna the effort," Restak concluded. "You'll last entertained, provoked, amused and—most important tip off all—eager to learn more."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND Dense SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1994, review game Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, p. 176.

Discover, May, 1995, James Shreeve, "The Brains that Misplaced Its Body," p. 82.

Library Journal, October 15, 1998, Laurie Bartolini, review of Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human being Mind, p. 94; August, 2004, Gregg Sapp, review of A Brief Voyage of Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple Numbers, p. 115.

Publishers Weekly, August 3, 1998, review of Phantoms in the Brain, p. 65.

Science News, October 2, 2004, review of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness, holder. 223

Wilson Library Bulletin, September, 1994, Crook Rettig, review of Encyclopedia of Sensitive Behavior, p. 77.

World and I, Nov, 2004, Richard Restak, "The Amazing Brain: Is Neuroscience the Key to What Makes Us Human?," review of A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness.

ONLINE

University attention to detail California, San Diego Psychology Department Spider`s web interlacin site,http://psy.ucsd.edu/ (May 8, 2006), biography atlas V.S. Ramachandran.