Drawing on strange and thought-provoking case studies, an eminent neurologist offers unprecedented insight into the evolution of the uniquely human brain.V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field-so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience." Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking...
Drawing on strange and thought-provoking case studies, an eminent neurologist offers unprecedented insight into the evolution of the uniquely human brain.V. S. Ramachandran is at the forefront of his field-so much so that Richard Dawkins dubbed him the "Marco Polo of neuroscience." Now, in a major new work, Ramachandran sets his sights on the mystery of human uniqueness. Taking us to the frontiers of neurology, he reveals what baffling and extreme case studies can teach us about normal brain function and how it evolved. Synesthesia becomes a window into the brain mechanisms that make some of us more creative than others. And autism—for which Ramachandran opens a new direction for treatment—gives us a glimpse of the aspect of being human that we understand least: self-awareness. Ramachandran tackles the most exciting and controversial topics in neurology with a storyteller's eye for compelling case studies and a researcher's flair for new approaches to age-old questions. Tracing the strange links between neurology and behavior, this book unveils a wealth of clues into the deepest mysteries of the human brain. 15 black-and-white illustrations
作者简介
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V. S. Ramachandran is director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and adjunct professor of biology at the Salk Institute.
Ramachandran trained as a physician and subsequently went on to obtain a PhD on a scholarship from Trinity College at the Univers...
V. S. Ramachandran is director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Distinguished Professor with the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and adjunct professor of biology at the Salk Institute.
Ramachandran trained as a physician and subsequently went on to obtain a PhD on a scholarship from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. His early work was on visual perception, but he is best known for his experiments in behavioral neurology, which, despite their extreme simplicity, have had a profound impact on the way we think about the brain. He has been called “a latter-day Marco Polo” by Richard Dawkins and “the modern Paul Broca” by the Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel.
In 2005 Ramachandran was awarded the Henry Dale Medal and elected to an honorary life membership by the Royal Institution of Great Britain. His other honors and awards include a fellowship from All Souls College, two honorary doctorates, the annual Ramón y Cajal Award from the International Neuropsychiatric Association, and the Ariens Kappers Medal from the Royal Nederlands Academy of Sciences. In 2003 he gave the annual BBC Reith lectures, the first of which was given by Bertrand Russell in 1949. In 1995 he gave the Decade of the Brain Lecture at the 25th annual (Silver Jubilee) meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Most recently, the president of India conferred upon him the third-highest civilian award and honorific title in India: the Padma Bhushan.
Ramachandran’s much-acclaimed book Phantoms in the Brain formed the basis for a two-hour PBS special. He has appeared on the Charlie Rose show, and Newsweek named him a member of the “Century Club”—one of the one hundred most important people to watch this century.
目录
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PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION NO MERE APE
CHAPTER 1 PHANTOM LIMBS AND PLASTIC BRAINS
CHAPTER 2 SEEING AND KNOWING
CHAPTER 3 LOUD COLORS AND HOT BABES: SYNESTHESIA
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(更多)
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION NO MERE APE
CHAPTER 1 PHANTOM LIMBS AND PLASTIC BRAINS
CHAPTER 2 SEEING AND KNOWING
CHAPTER 3 LOUD COLORS AND HOT BABES: SYNESTHESIA
CHAPTER 4 THE NEURONS THAT SHAPED CIVILIZATION
CHAPTER 5 WHERE IS STEVEN? THE RIDDLE OF AUTISM
CHAPTER 6 THE POWER OF BABBLE: THE EVOLUTION OF LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 7 BEAUTY AND THE BRAIN: THE EMERGENCE OF AESTHETICS
CHAPTER 8 THE ARTFUL BRAIN: UNIVERSAL LAWS
CHAPTER 9 AN APE WITH A SOUL: HOW INTROSPECTION EVOLVED
EPILOGUE
GLOSSARY
NOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ILLUSTRATION CREDITS
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原文摘录
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Finally, after amputation of the foot of another patient, sensations from the penis were felt in the phantom foot. (Indeed, the patient claimed that his orgasm spread into his foot and was therefore "much bigger than it used to be.") This occurs because of another of these odd discontinuities in the brain's map of the body: The map of the genitals is right next to the map of the foot. (查看原文)
Given the opportunistic nature of evolution, it is possible that the most convenient way to represent abstract numerical ideas, including sequentiality, is to map them onto a preexisting map of visual space. Given that the parietal lobe originally evolved to represent space, is it a surprise that numerical calculations are also computated there, especially in the angular gyrus?
The left angular gyrus might be involved in representing ordinality. The right angular gyrus might be specialised for quantity. The simplest way to spatially map out a numerical sequence in the brain would be a straight line from left to right. This in turn might be mapped onto notions of quantity represented in the right hemisphere. But now let's assume that the gene that allows such remapping of sequence on visu... (查看原文)
有临床经验的科学家简直太会写书了！一个更有意思的点是，弗洛伊德是好多自然科学取向理论家的梦魇，作者也是受了弗洛伊德影响但是又想超越弗洛伊德，despite the fact that Freud’s theory is not even scientific and hence out of the battle!
面对这样一本将近400页的书，假期只花了一天左右的时间，所以没有来得及全数读完，只是跳跃性地挑了一些自己感兴趣的章节作了一下快速阅读，用来决定该花多少精力以及该把什么样的时间投入在这本书上。 我阅读的章节包括 Introduction Chapter 9 : An Ape With a Soul, How I...
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“There is a widespread fear among scholars in the humanities and arts that science may someday take over their discipline and deprive them of employment, a syndrome I have dubbed ‘neuron envy.’” 这段摆明了是要搞事情的话摘自The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuros...
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yangjunpro
iommi/佛界易入，魔界难进
卧听南窗雨
中信出版社2022版（其他版本）
5 有用 面具@知道疯子 2013-03-27 17:53:43
神作，无需多言，6星推荐（应当有中文版）
0 有用 cheervivian 2023-07-26 02:42:08 北京
十颗星！
0 有用 Caimi 2018-06-17 21:21:43
我们是Angels trapped inside bodies of beasts~
0 有用 变态蓝 2022-03-20 16:28:47
有临床经验的科学家简直太会写书了！一个更有意思的点是，弗洛伊德是好多自然科学取向理论家的梦魇，作者也是受了弗洛伊德影响但是又想超越弗洛伊德，despite the fact that Freud’s theory is not even scientific and hence out of the battle!
0 有用 weihu 2016-07-29 11:45:51
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