V. S. Ramachandran

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V. S. Ramachandran
Vilayanur S Ramachandran 2011 Shankbone.JPG
Ramachandran at the 2011 Time 100 gala
Born
Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran

(1951-08-10) 10 August 1951 (age 72)
Tamil Nadu, India
Alma mater
Known forResearch in neurology, visual perception, phantom limbs, synesthesia, autism, body integrity identity disorder, mirror therapy
AwardsHenry Dale Medal (2005), Padma Bhushan (2007), Scientist of the Year (ARCS Foundation) (2014)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions University of California, San Diego

Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran (born 10 August 1951) is an Indian-American neuroscientist. He is known for his wide-ranging experiments and theories in behavioral neurology, including the invention of the mirror box. Ramachandran is a distinguished professor in UCSD's Department of Psychology, where he is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition.

Contents

After earning a medical degree in India, Ramachandran studied experimental neuroscience at Cambridge, obtaining his PhD there in 1978. [1] Most of his research has been in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics. After early work on human vision, Ramachandran turned to work on wider aspects of neurology including phantom limbs and phantom pain. Ramachandran have also performed the world's first "phantom limb amputation" surgeries by inventing the mirror therapy, which is now widely used for reducing fantom pains (and eliminating phantom sensations altogether in long term), and also for helping to restore motor control in stroke victims with weakened limbs.

Ramachandran's popular books Phantoms in the Brain (1998), The Tell-Tale Brain (2010), and others describe neurological and clinical studies of people with synesthesia, Capgras syndrome, and a wide range of other unusual conditions. Ramachandran has also described his work in many public lectures, including lectures for the BBC, and two official TED talks. Both his scientific research and his popularization of science have been recognized with multiple awards.

Biography

Ramachandran was born in 1951 in Tamil Nadu, India. [2] [3] His mother had a degree in mathematics. His grandfather was Alladi Krishnaswamy Iyer, one of the framers of India's constitution. [3]

Ramachandran's father, V. M. Subramanian, was an engineer who worked for the U.N. Industrial Development Organization and served as a diplomat in Bangkok, Thailand. [4] [3] Ramachandran attended schools in Madras, and British schools in Bangkok. [5]

Ramachandran, whose father wanted him to become a physician rather than a researcher, obtained an M.B.B.S. from Stanley Medical College in Chennai, India. [6]

In 1978, Ramachandran obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. Later he moved to the US, where he spent two years at Caltech as a research fellow working with Jack Pettigrew before being appointed assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego in 1983. He became a full professor there in 1988. He currently holds the rank of distinguished professor in the UCSD Psychology Department, [7] and is the director of its Center for Brain and Cognition, [8] [9] where he works with graduate students and researchers from UCSD and elsewhere on emerging theories in neuroscience. [3] As of July 2019, Ramachandran is also a professor in the UCSD Medical School's Neurosciences program. [10] and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. [11]

In 1987, Ramachandran married a fellow scientist who became his frequent co-author as Diane Rogers-Ramachandran. They have two sons, Chandramani and Jaya. [3]

Ramachandran's scientific work can be divided into two phases. From the early 1970s until the late 1980s, Ramachandran's work focused almost exclusively on human visual processing, especially on stereopsis. Ramachandran began publishing research in this area beginning in 1972, with a paper in Nature while still a student at Stanley Medical College. [12] [3]

In 1991, Ramachandran was inspired by Tim Pons's research on cortical plasticity. Pons demonstrated cortical reorganization in monkeys after the amputation of a finger. Ramachandran was one of the first researchers to recognize the potential of neuroimaging technology to demonstrate the plastic changes that take place in the human cortex after amputation. [13] Ramachandran then began research on phantom limbs, but later moved on to study a wider range of neurological mysteries, including body integrity identity disorder and the Capgras delusion.

Ramachandran has encountered skepticism about some of his theories. [14] [15] [16] Ramachandran has responded, "I have—for better or worse—roamed the whole landscape of visual perception, stereopsis, phantom limbs, denial of paralysis, Capgras syndrome, synaesthesia, and many others." [17]

Ramachandran has served as a consultant in areas such as forensic psychology and the neuroscience of weight reduction. In 2007, Ramachandran served as an expert witness on pseudocyesis (false pregnancy) at the trial of Lisa M. Montgomery. [18] Ramachandran has served as a consultant to the Modius company which is developing weight reduction technology that relies on electrically stimulating parts of the brain that control weight loss. [19] Ramachandran is collaborating with Indian doctors doing research on Mucuna pruriens, an ayurvedic (Indian natural medicine) therapy for Parkinson's disease. [20]

In his scientific work, Ramachandran often uses simple equipment, such as mirrors or old-fashioned stereoscopes, rather than complex brain imaging technologies such as fMRI. Ramachandran has been outspoken about his intuition-based approach to studying the brain. In an interview with Frontline magazine [21] Ramachandran stated:

Intuition is what gets you started; then you need empirical studies... brain-imaging technology often lulls you into a false sense of having understood what's going on. So sometimes, not having technology - that's my own approach and that of some of my colleagues, we use it only when it's absolutely essential, just like medical diagnostics. We rely more on intuition in doing simple experiments, because if you rely on fancy medical imaging, you become less creative.

Research and theory

Phantom limbs

When an arm or leg is amputated, patients often continue to feel vividly the presence of the missing limb as a "phantom limb" (an average of 80%). Building on earlier work by Ronald Melzack (McGill University) and Timothy Pons (NIMH), Ramachandran theorized that there was a link between the phenomenon of phantom limbs and neural plasticity in the adult human brain. To test this theory, Ramachandran recruited amputees, so that he could learn more about if phantom limbs could "feel" a stimulus to other parts of the body. [22]

In 1992, in collaboration with T.T. Yang, S. Gallen, and others at the Scripps Research Institute who were conducting MEG research, [23] Ramachandran initiated a project to demonstrate that there had been measurable changes in the somatosensory cortex of a patient who had undergone an arm amputation. [24] [25]

Ramachandran theorized that there was a relationship between the cortical reorganization evident in the MEG image and the non-painful referred sensations he had observed in other subjects. [26] [27]

Later researchers found that non-painful phantom limbs correlated less with motor or somatosensory plasticity than painful phantom limbs. [28] Recent research has also shown that the peripheral nervous system is involved in painful phantom limb phenomena. [29]

Research continues into more precise mechanisms and explanations. [30]

Mirror visual feedback/mirror therapy

Ramachandran standing next to the original mirror box Dr. Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and psychology student Matthew Marradi holding the original Mirror Box.jpg
Ramachandran standing next to the original mirror box

Writing in 2009, John Colapinto (author of Ramachandran's profile [3] in The New Yorker ) said that mirror box therapy for amputees was Ramachandran's most noted achievement. [31]

Ramachandran thought that phantom pain might be caused by the mismatch between different parts of an amputee's nervous systems: the visual system says the limb is missing, but the somatosensory system (processing body sensations such as touch and limb position) says the limb is still there. The so-called mirror box was a simple apparatus that uses a mirror reflecting an amputee's good arm so it appears to be the extension of the one missing:

They put their surviving arm through a hole in the side of a box with a mirror inside, so that, peering through the open top, they would see their arm and its mirror image, as if they had two arms. Ramachandran then asked them to move both their intact arm and, in their mind, their phantom arm—to pretend that they were conducting an orchestra, say. The patients had the sense that they had two arms again. [32]

Ramachandran found that in some cases restoring movement to a paralyzed phantom limb reduced the pain experienced. [33] In 1999 Ramachandran and Eric Altschuler expanded the mirror technique from amputees to improving the muscle control of stroke patients with weakened limbs. [34] As Deconick et al. state in a 2014 review, the mechanism of improved motor control may differ from the mechanism of pain relief. [35]

Despite the introduction of mirror therapy in the late 1990s, little research was published on it before 2009, and much of the research since then has been of contested quality. [36] Out of 115 publications between 2012 and 2017 about using mirror therapy to treat phantom limb pain, a 2018 review, found only 15 studies whose scientific results should be considered. From these 15 studies, the reviewers concluded that "MT seems to be effective in relieving PLP, reducing the intensity and duration of daily pain episodes. It is a valid, simple, and inexpensive treatment for PLP." [37] Similarly, a 2017 review that studied a wider range of uses for mirror therapy, concluded, "Mirror therapy has been used to treat phantom limb pain, complex regional pain syndrome, neuropathy and low back pain. The mechanism of action of mirror therapy remains uncertain, and the evidence for clinical efficacy of mirror therapy is encouraging, but not yet definitive." [38]

Mirror neurons

Mirror neurons were first reported in a paper published in 1992 by a team of researchers led by Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma. [39] According to Rizzolati, "Mirror neurons are a specific type of visuomotor neuron that discharge both when a monkey executes a motor act and when it observes a similar motor act performed by another individual." [40]

In 2000, Ramachandran made what he called some "purely speculative conjectures" that "mirror neurons [in humans] will do for psychology what DNA did for biology: they will provide a unifying framework and help explain a host of mental abilities that have hitherto remained mysterious and inaccessible to experiments." [41]

Ramachandran has suggested that research into the role of mirror neurons could help explain a variety of human mental capacities such as empathy, imitation learning, and the evolution of language. In a 2001 essay for Edge, Ramachandran speculated that

I suggested that in addition to providing a neural substrate for figuring out another persons intentions...the emergence and subsequent sophistication of mirror neurons in hominids may have played a crucial role in many quintessentially human abilities such as empathy, learning through imitation (rather than trial and error), and the rapid transmission of what we call "culture". (And the "great leap forward" — the rapid Lamarckian transmission of "accidental") one-of-a kind inventions. [42]

Ramchandran's speculations about the connection of mirror neurons with empathy have been contested by some authors and supported by others. [43] [44] [45] [46]

"Broken Mirrors" theory of autism

In 1999, Ramachandran, in collaboration with then post-doctoral fellow Eric Altschuler and colleague Jaime Pineda, hypothesized that a dysfunction of mirror neuron activity might be responsible for some of the symptoms and signs of autism spectrum disorders. [47] Between 2000 and 2006 Ramachandran and his colleagues at UC San Diego published a number of articles in support of this theory, which became known as the "Broken Mirrors" theory of autism. [48] [49] [50] Ramachandran and his colleagues did not measure mirror neuron activity directly; rather they demonstrated that children with ASD showed abnormal EEG responses (known as Mu wave suppression) when they observed the activities of other people. In The Tell-Tale Brain (2010), Ramachandran states that the evidence for mirror-neuron dysfunction in autism is "compelling but not conclusive." [43]

The contention that mirror neurons play a role in autism has been extensively discussed and researched. [51] [52] [53] [54] [55]

Neural basis of synesthesia

Synesthetes who experience color when viewing different symbols may quickly identify the presence of the "triangle" in the left-hand image. Synaesthesiatest.jpg
Synesthetes who experience color when viewing different symbols may quickly identify the presence of the "triangle" in the left-hand image.

Ramachandran was one of the first scientists to theorize that grapheme-color synesthesia arises from a cross-activation between brain regions. [56] [57] Ramachandran and his graduate student, Ed Hubbard, conducted research with functional magnetic resonance imaging that found increased activity in the color recognition areas of the brain in synesthetes compared to non-synesthetes. [57] [58] Ramachandran has speculated that conceptual metaphors may also have a neurological basis in cortical cross-activation. As of 2015, the neurological basis of synesthesia had not been established. [59]

Xenomelia (apotemnophilia)

In 2008, Ramachandran, along with David Brang and Paul McGeoch, published the first paper to theorize that apotemnophilia is a neurological disorder caused by damage to the right parietal lobe of the brain. [60] This rare disorder, in which a person desires the amputation of a limb, was first identified by John Money in 1977. Building on medical case studies that linked brain damage to syndromes such as somatoparaphrenia (lack of limb ownership), the authors speculated that the desire for amputation could be related to changes in the right parietal lobe. In 2011, McGeoch, Brang and Ramachandran reported a functional imaging experiment involving four subjects who desired lower limb amputations. MEG scans demonstrated that their right superior parietal lobules were significantly less active in response to tactile stimulation of a limb that the subjects wished to have amputated, as compared to age- and sex-matched controls. [61] The authors introduced the word xenomelia to describe this syndrome, which is derived from the Greek for "foreign" and "limb".

Popularization of science

Ramachandran is the author of several popular books on neurology such as Phantoms in the Brain (1998) and The Tell-Tale Brain (2010). Phantoms in the Brain became the basis for a 2001 PBS Nova special. [62] [63]

In 2003, the BBC chose Ramachandran to deliver that year's Reith Lectures, a series of radio lectures. [64] Ramachandran's five radio talks on the topic "The Emerging Mind" were afterward published as a book with the same title. [65] [66]

Ramachandran has also given many talks, including TED talks in 2007 and 2010. [67]

In 1997, Newsweek included him on a list of one hundred "personalities whose creativity or talent or brains or leadership will make a difference in the years ahead." [68] In 2008, Foreign Policy included Ramachandran as one of its "World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals." [69] Similarly, in 2011, Time listed Ramachandran as one of "the most influential people in the world" on the "Time 100 list". [70] Both the Time and the Prospect selections were decided by public voting on a longer list of names proposed by the organization.

Awards and honors

Ramachandran has received many academic and other honors. For example, from his biography at Edge.org: [71]

In 2005 he was awarded the Henry Dale Medal [72] and elected to an honorary life membership by the Royal Institution of Great Britain, [72] where he also gave a Friday evening discourse (joining the ranks of Michael Faraday, Thomas Huxley, Humphry Davy and others.) His other honours and awards include fellowships from All Souls College, Oxford, [72] and from Stanford University (Hilgard Visiting Professor); the Presidential Lecture Award from the American Academy of Neurology, [73] [74] two honorary doctorates, [75] the annual Ramon y Cajal award from the International Neuropsychiatry Society, [76] and the Ariens Kappers medal from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. [77]

In 2007, the president of India conferred on him the third highest civilian award and honorific title in India, the Padma Bhushan. [78]

In 2014, the ARCS Foundation (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) named Ramachandran its "Scientist of the Year." [79]

Publications

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amputation</span> Medical procedure that removes a part of the body

Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on individuals as a preventive surgery for such problems. A special case is that of congenital amputation, a congenital disorder, where fetal limbs have been cut off by constrictive bands. In some countries, amputation is currently used to punish people who commit crimes. Amputation has also been used as a tactic in war and acts of terrorism; it may also occur as a war injury. In some cultures and religions, minor amputations or mutilations are considered a ritual accomplishment. When done by a person, the person executing the amputation is an amputator. The oldest evidence of this practice comes from a skeleton found buried in Liang Tebo cave, East Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo dating back to at least 31,000 years ago, where it was done when the amputee was a young child.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pain</span> Type of distressing feeling

Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phantom limb</span> Sensation that an amputated or missing limb is attached

A phantom limb is the sensation that an amputated or missing limb is still attached. Approximately 80–100% of individuals with an amputation experience sensations in their amputated limb. However, only a small percentage will experience painful phantom limb sensation. These sensations are relatively common in amputees and usually resolve within two to three years without treatment. Research continues to explore the underlying mechanisms of phantom limb pain (PLP) and effective treatment options.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fusiform gyrus</span> Gyrus of the temporal and occipital lobes of the brain

The fusiform gyrus, also known as the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus,is part of the temporal lobe and occipital lobe in Brodmann area 37. The fusiform gyrus is located between the lingual gyrus and parahippocampal gyrus above, and the inferior temporal gyrus below. Though the functionality of the fusiform gyrus is not fully understood, it has been linked with various neural pathways related to recognition. Additionally, it has been linked to various neurological phenomena such as synesthesia, dyslexia, and prosopagnosia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sensory neuron</span> Nerve cell that converts environmental stimuli into corresponding internal stimuli

Sensory neurons, also known as afferent neurons, are neurons in the nervous system, that convert a specific type of stimulus, via their receptors, into action potentials or graded receptor potentials. This process is called sensory transduction. The cell bodies of the sensory neurons are located in the dorsal ganglia of the spinal cord.

A mirror neuron is a neuron that fires both when an organism acts and when the organism observes the same action performed by another. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of the other, as though the observer were itself acting. Mirror neurons are not always physiologically distinct from other types of neurons in the brain; their main differentiating factor is their response patterns. By this definition, such neurons have been directly observed in humans and primate species, and in birds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mirror therapy</span> Treatment for some kinds of pain

Mirror therapy (MT) or mirror visual feedback (MVF) is a therapy for pain or disability that affects one side of the patient more than the other side. It was invented by Vilayanur S. Ramachandran to treat post-amputation patients who had phantom limb pain (PLP). Ramachandran created a visual illusion of two intact limbs by putting the patient's affected limb into a "mirror box," with a mirror down the center.

Phantom pain is a painful perception that an individual experiences relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body, either because it was removed or was never there in the first place.

Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned. These changes range from individual neuron pathways making new connections, to systematic adjustments like cortical remapping or neural oscillation. Other forms of neuroplasticity include homologous area adaptation, cross modal reassignment, map expansion, and compensatory masquerade. Examples of neuroplasticity include circuit and network changes that result from learning a new ability, information acquisition, environmental influences, practice, and psychological stress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phantom eye syndrome</span> Medical condition

The phantom eye syndrome (PES) is a phantom pain in the eye and visual hallucinations after the removal of an eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mu wave</span> Electrical activity in the part of the brain controlling voluntary movement

The sensorimotor mu rhythm, also known as mu wave, comb or wicket rhythms or arciform rhythms, are synchronized patterns of electrical activity involving large numbers of neurons, probably of the pyramidal type, in the part of the brain that controls voluntary movement. These patterns as measured by electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), or electrocorticography (ECoG), repeat at a frequency of 7.5–12.5 Hz, and are most prominent when the body is physically at rest. Unlike the alpha wave, which occurs at a similar frequency over the resting visual cortex at the back of the scalp, the mu rhythm is found over the motor cortex, in a band approximately from ear to ear. People suppress mu rhythms when they perform motor actions or, with practice, when they visualize performing motor actions. This suppression is called desynchronization of the wave because EEG wave forms are caused by large numbers of neurons firing in synchrony. The mu rhythm is even suppressed when one observes another person performing a motor action or an abstract motion with biological characteristics. Researchers such as V. S. Ramachandran and colleagues have suggested that this is a sign that the mirror neuron system is involved in mu rhythm suppression, although others disagree.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. For example, in a form of synesthesia known as Grapheme → color synesthesia, letters or numbers may be perceived as inherently colored. In another, called number → form synesthesia, numbers are automatically and consistently associated with locations in space. In yet another form of synesthesia, called ordinal linguistic personification, either numbers, days of the week, or months of the year evoke personalities. In other forms of synesthesia, music and other sounds may be perceived as colored or having particular shapes. Recent research has begun to explore the neural basis of these experiences, drawing both on neuroscientific principles and on functional neuroimaging data.

Body schema is an organism's internal model of its own body, including the position of its limbs. The neurologist Sir Henry Head originally defined it as a postural model of the body that actively organizes and modifies 'the impressions produced by incoming sensory impulses in such a way that the final sensation of body position, or of locality, rises into consciousness charged with a relation to something that has happened before'. As a postural model that keeps track of limb position, it plays an important role in control of action.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Somatosensory system</span> Nerve system for sensing touch, temperature, body position, and pain

In physiology, the somatosensory system is the network of neural structures in the brain and body that produce the perception of touch, as well as temperature (thermoception), body position (proprioception), and pain. It is a subset of the sensory nervous system, which also represents visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and vestibular stimuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visual capture</span>

In psychology, visual capture is the dominance of vision over other sense modalities in creating a percept. In this process, the visual senses influence the other parts of the somatosensory system, to result in a perceived environment that is not congruent with the actual stimuli. Through this phenomenon, the visual system is able to disregard what other information a different sensory system is conveying, and provide a logical explanation for whatever output the environment provides. Visual capture allows one to interpret the location of sound as well as the sensation of touch without actually relying on those stimuli but rather creating an output that allows the individual to perceive a coherent environment.

<i>The Tell-Tale Brain</i>

The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human is a 2010 nonfiction book by V. S. Ramachandran that explores the uniqueness of human nature from a neurological viewpoint.

Mirror-touch synesthesia is a rare condition which causes individuals to experience a similar sensation in the same part or opposite part of the body that another person feels. For example, if someone with this condition were to observe someone touching their cheek, they would feel the same sensation on their own cheek. Synesthesia, in general, is described as a condition in which a concept or sensation causes an individual to experience an additional sensation or concept. Synesthesia is usually a developmental condition; however, recent research has shown that mirror touch synesthesia can be acquired after sensory loss following amputation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cortical remapping</span>

Cortical remapping, also referred to as cortical reorganization, is the process by which an existing cortical map is affected by a stimulus resulting in the creating of a 'new' cortical map. Every part of the body is connected to a corresponding area in the brain which creates a cortical map. When something happens to disrupt the cortical maps such as an amputation or a change in neuronal characteristics, the map is no longer relevant. The part of the brain that is in charge of the amputated limb or neuronal change will be dominated by adjacent cortical regions that are still receiving input, thus creating a remapped area. Remapping can occur in the sensory or motor system. The mechanism for each system may be quite different. Cortical remapping in the somatosensory system happens when there has been a decrease in sensory input to the brain due to deafferentation or amputation, as well as a sensory input increase to an area of the brain. Motor system remapping receives more limited feedback that can be difficult to interpret.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tactile hallucination</span>

Tactile hallucination is the false perception of tactile sensory input that creates a hallucinatory sensation of physical contact with an imaginary object. It is caused by the faulty integration of the tactile sensory neural signals generated in the spinal cord and the thalamus and sent to the primary somatosensory cortex (SI) and secondary somatosensory cortex (SII). Tactile hallucinations are recurrent symptoms of neurological diseases such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, Ekbom's syndrome and delirium tremens. Patients who experience phantom limb pains also experience a type of tactile hallucination. Tactile hallucinations are also caused by drugs such as cocaine and alcohol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Limb telescoping</span>

Limb telescoping is the progressive shortening of a phantom limb as the cortical regions are reorganized following an amputation. During this reorganization, proximal portions of the residual limb are perceived as more distal parts of the phantom limb. Such effect is responsible for increased phantom pain due to the discrepancy between the patient’s body perception and their actual body. This effect may last from weeks up to years after post-amputation.

References

  1. ↑ Ramachandran, Vilayanur (1978). Studies on binocular vision. Cambridge University. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  2. ↑ Anthony, Andrew (30 January 2011). "VS Ramachandran: The Marco Polo of neuroscience". The Guardian. Retrieved 5 July 2019. Among amputees, 90% suffer from phantom limb pain, which can often cause excruciating discomfort.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Colapinto, John (4 May 2009). "Brain Games: The Marco Polo of neuroscience". The New Yorker. Retrieved 25 January 2022. In 1991, he became interested in the work of Tim Pons, a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, who had been investigating the ability of neurons in the sensory cortex to adapt to change.
  4. ↑ "The Science Studio Interview, June 10, 2006, transcript" (PDF).
  5. ↑ Ramachandran V.S., The Making of a Scientist, essay included in Curious Minds:How a Child Becomes a Scientist, page 211
  6. ↑ Datta, Damayanti (12 August 2011). "The mind reader". India Today. Retrieved 2 July 2019. he first saw a fresh human brain as a student at the Stanley Medical College in Chennai in the 1970s.
  7. ↑ UCSD Psychology Department faculty page for Ramachandran
  8. ↑ UCSD Psychology Department website
  9. ↑ "The Center for Brain and Cognition - Research". UCSD. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  10. ↑ "UCSD Neurosciences faculty page for Ramachandran". Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  11. ↑ Salk Institute list of adjunct faculty
  12. ↑ 1972 Nature author affiliation
  13. ↑ Hegarty, Stephanie (5 December 2011). "What phantom limbs and mirrors teach us about the brain". BBC. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  14. ↑ Jarrett, Christian, A Calm Look At The Most Hyped Concept In Neuroscience-Mirror Neurons, Wired,12.13.13,
  15. ↑ Brugger, Peter (7 December 2018). "The tell-tale brain: Unlocking the mystery of human nature" (PDF). Cognitive Neuropsychiatry. 17 (4): 351–358. doi:10.1080/13546805.2012.685295. S2CID   144065665 . Retrieved 10 July 2019. Although the TellTale Brain does contain a lot of pop on the surface, the overall content is very much Popper
  16. ↑ Adler, Tessa (1 July 2014). "Unsolved Mysteries: Phantom Limbs". Yale Scientific (a student publication at Yale University). Retrieved 10 July 2019.
  17. ↑ Ramachandran, V.S. Author Response, Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, Vol. 17, Issue 4, 2012
  18. ↑ AP, NBC website, Crime and Courts,17 October 2007
  19. ↑ Auerbach, Brad, Modius Intends To Buck The Trend Of Weight Loss Solutions With Data-Based Success And FDA Approval, Forbes,16 March 2018,
  20. ↑ DECCAN CHRONICLE, ABHISH K BOSE, 28 November 2018
  21. ↑ Sashi Kumar, "In the mind of the brain," Frontline, Volume 23, Issue 06, 25 Mar. – 7 April 2006
  22. ↑ Guenther, Katja (2016). "'It's All Done With Mirrors': V.S. Ramachandran and the Material Culture of Phantom Limb Research". Medical History. 60 (3): 342–358. doi:10.1017/mdh.2016.27. PMC   4904333 . PMID   27292324. S2CID   38039064. Ramachandran subsequently confirmed these results in a magnetoencephalography (MEG) study.
  23. ↑ Ramachandran, VS; Hirstein, W (1998). "The perception of phantom limbs. The D. O. Hebb lecture" (PDF). Brain. 121 (9): 1603–30. doi: 10.1093/brain/121.9.1603 . PMID   9762952 . Retrieved 8 July 2019. We realized that MEG studies could also be useful in determining whether remapping effects of the kind reported in monkeys would also be seen in human patients following amputation.
  24. ↑ Yang, T. T; Gallen, C. C; Ramachandran, V. S; Cobb, S; Schwartz, B. J; Bloom, F. E (1994). "Noninvasive detection of cerebral plasticity in adult human somatosensory cortex". NeuroReport. 5 (6): 701–4. doi:10.1097/00001756-199402000-00010. PMID   8199341.
  25. ↑ Flor, Herta; Nikolajsen, Lone; Staehelin Jensen, Troels (2006). "Phantom limb pain: A case of maladaptive CNS plasticity?". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 7 (11): 873–81. doi:10.1038/nrn1991. PMID   17053811. S2CID   2809584.
  26. ↑ Ramachandran, V; Rogers-Ramachandran, D; Stewart, M; Pons, Tim P (1992). "Perceptual correlates of massive cortical reorganization". Science. 258 (5085): 1159–60. Bibcode:1992Sci...258.1159R. doi: 10.1126/science.1439826 . PMID   1439826.
  27. ↑ Yang, Tony T; Gallen, C; Schwartz, B; Bloom, FE; Ramachandran, VS; Cobb, S (1994). "Sensory maps in the human brain". Nature. 368 (6472): 592–593. Bibcode:1994Natur.368..592Y. doi:10.1038/368592b0. PMID   8145842. S2CID   4260822. We conclude that new patterns of precisely organized and functionally effective connections can emerge in the adult human brain.
  28. ↑ Reorganization of Motor and Somatosensory Cortex in Upper Extremity Amputees with Phantom Limb Pain, Karl, Birbaumer, Lutzenberger, Cohen, Flor, Journal of Neuroscience 15 May 2001,21(10)
  29. ↑ Collins, Kassondra L; Russell, Hannah G. (2018). "A review of current theories and treatments for phantom limb pain". J Clin Invest. 128 (6): 2168–2176. doi:10.1172/JCI94003. PMC   5983333 . PMID   29856366. Currently, the most commonly posited CNS theory is the cortical remapping theory (CRT), in which the brain is believed to respond to limb loss by reorganizing somatosensory maps (16)... Debate still remains over the cause and maintaining factors of both phantom limbs and the associated pain.
  30. ↑ Kaur, Amreet; Guan, Yuxi (2018). "Phantom limb pain: A literature review". Chin J Traumatol. 21 (6): 366–368. doi:10.1016/j.cjtee.2018.04.006. PMC   6354174 . PMID   30583983. It is unsurprising that with an amputation that such an intricate highway of information transport to and from the periphery may have the potential for problematic neurologic developments...Although phantom limb sensation has already been described and proposed by French military surgeon Ambroise Pare 500 years ago, there is still no detailed explanation of its mechanisms.
  31. ↑ Colapinto, John (4 May 2009). "John Colapinto: Ramachandran's Mirror Trick". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 July 2019. As a child, he was obsessed with magic tricks and illusions. So I think it's no coincidence that the insight that made his name in science is his work using mirrors to alleviate phantom-limb pain, the excruciating, unremitting agony that many amputees feel in their missing limbs.
  32. ↑ Gawande, Atul (23 June 2008). "John Colapinto: Ramachandran's Mirror Trick". The New Yorker . Retrieved 23 July 2019. The mirror treatment, by contrast, targets the deranged sensor system itself. It essentially takes a misfiring sensor—a warning system functioning under an illusion that something is terribly wrong out in the world it monitors—and feeds it an alternate set of signals that calm it down. The new signals may even reset the sensor.
  33. ↑ Ramachandran, V. S; Rogers-Ramachandran, D (1996). "Synaesthesia in Phantom Limbs Induced with Mirrors". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 263 (1369): 377–86. Bibcode:1996RSPSB.263..377R. doi:10.1098/rspb.1996.0058. PMID   8637922. S2CID   4819370.
  34. ↑ Altschuler, Eric Lewin; Wisdom, Sidney B (12 June 1999). "Rehabilitation of hemiparesis after stroke with a mirror". The Lancet. 353 (9169): 2035–2036. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(99)00920-4. PMID   10376620. S2CID   3202937 . Retrieved 24 July 2019. Use of the mirror may also help recruit the premotor cortex to help with motor rehabilitation...On a number of neurological and psychological levels, mirror therapy may help to reverse elements of learned disuse of the affected limb.
  35. ↑ Deconinck, Frederik JA; Smorenburg, Ana RP (26 August 2014). "Reflections on Mirror Therapy: A Systematic Review of the Effect of Mirror Visual Feedback on the Brain". Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. 29 (4): 349–361. doi: 10.1177/1545968314546134 . PMID   25160567. S2CID   20486498.
  36. ↑ Jessie, Barbin; Seetha, Vanessa (2016). "The effects of mirror therapy on pain and motor control of phantom limb in amputees: A systematic review". Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine. 59 (4): 270–275. doi: 10.1016/j.rehab.2016.04.001 . PMID   27256539. Up to the 26th November 2015, 85 articles were retrieved on the Medline, Cochrane and Embase databases with using the keywords phantom limb and mirror therapy. It was noted that from 2009, the number of articles increased markedly (Fig. 1), showing increased interest in MT following amputation.
  37. ↑ Campo-Prieto, P; Rodríguez-Fuentes, G (14 November 2018). "Effectiveness of mirror therapy in phantom limb pain: A literature review". Neurologia. doi: 10.1016/j.nrl.2018.08.003 . PMID   30447854. It is a valid, simple, and inexpensive treatment for PLP. The methodological quality of most publications in this field is very limited, highlighting the need for additional, high-quality studies to develop clinical protocols that could maximise the benefits of MT for patients with PLP.
  38. ↑ Mirror therapy: A potential intervention for pain management, Wittkopf, Johnson,2017 Nov;63(11):
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  41. ↑ Ramachandran, Vilayanur (31 May 2000). "MIRROR NEURONS and imitation learning as the driving force behind 'the great leap forward' in human evolution". Edge.org. Retrieved 25 July 2019. Thus I regard Rizzolati's discovery — and my purely speculative conjectures on their key role in our evolution — as the most important unreported story of the last decade.
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  43. 1 2 Baron-Cohen, Making Sense of the Brain's Mysteries, American Scientist, On-line Book Review, July–August 2011
  44. ↑ Taylor, John, Mirror Neurons After a Quarter Century: New light, new cracks, Science In The News (web article)Harvard University,29 Aug 2016
  45. ↑ Woodward, A. L.; Gerson, S. A. (2014). "Mirroring and the development of action understanding". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 369 (1644): 20130181. doi:10.1098/rstb.2013.0181. PMC   4006183 . PMID   24778377.
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  47. ↑ Ramachandran, Vilayanur S; Oberman, Lindsay M (2006). "Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism". Scientific American. 295 (5): 62–9. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0607-20sp. PMID   17076085. Because these neurons appeared to be involved in abilities such as empathy and the perception of another individuals intentions, it seemed logical to hypothesize that a dysfunction of the mirror neuron system could result in some of the symptoms of autism.
  48. ↑ Oberman, Lindsay M; Hubbard, Edward M; McCleery, Joseph P; Altschuler, Eric L; Ramachandran, Vilayanur S; Pineda, Jaime A (2005). "EEG evidence for mirror neuron dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders". Cognitive Brain Research. 24 (2): 190–8. doi:10.1016/j.cogbrainres.2005.01.014. PMID   15993757.
  49. ↑ Ramachandran, Vilayanur S; Oberman, Lindsay M (2006). "Broken Mirrors: A Theory of Autism". Scientific American. 295 (5): 62–9. Bibcode:2006SciAm.295e..62R. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1106-62. PMID   17076085.
  50. ↑ Oberman, Lindsay M; Ramachandran, Vilayanur S (2007). "The simulating social mind: The role of the mirror neuron system and simulation in the social and communicative deficits of autism spectrum disorders". Psychological Bulletin. 133 (2): 310–27. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.133.2.310. PMID   17338602. S2CID   8679021.
  51. ↑ Hamilton, Antonia F. de C. (2013). "Reflecting on the mirror neuron system in autism: A systematic review of current theories". Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. 3: 91–105. doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2012.09.008. PMC   6987721 . PMID   23245224.
  52. ↑ Two systems for action comprehension in autism:mirroring and mentalizing, Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg & Lombardo, Chapter in Understanding Other Minds
  53. ↑ Fitch, W. Tecumseh (2016). "The Myth of Mirror Neurons: The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition. By Gregory Hickok. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. $26.95. Ix + 292 p.; ill.; index. ISBN: 978-0-393-08961-5. 2014". The Quarterly Review of Biology. 91 (3): 368–369. doi:10.1086/688133.
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  55. ↑ Khalil, Radwa; Tindle, Richard (2018). "Social decision making in autism: On the impact of mirror neurons, motor control, and imitative behaviors". CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics. 24 (10): 669–676. doi:10.1111/cns.13037. PMC   6489775 . PMID   29963752. Based on the current studies, we suggest a multilayer neural network model including the MNS on a first layer and transforming this information to a higher layer network responsible for reasoning
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  66. ↑ The Emerging Mind: The Reith Lectures 2003
  67. ↑ "Vilayanur Ramachandran Brain expert". TED talks website. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  68. ↑ "The Century Club". Newsweek. 20 April 1997. Retrieved 5 July 2019. Our object has been to take a snapshot of the future, framing some of the personalities whose creativity or talent or brains or leadership will make a difference in the years ahead.
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  73. ↑ "2019 Presidential Plenary Session". AAAnews. 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2019. In non-AAN election years, this premier lecture is awarded to a neurologist chosen by the AAN president. In election years the lecture is presented by the outgoing president.
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  78. ↑ Kiderra, Inga (7 December 2018). "Renowned Neuroscientist Receives Distinguished Service Award". UCSD News. Retrieved 30 June 2019. Established in 1954 by the president of India, the Padma Bhushan recognizes distinguished service of a high order to the nation, in any field.
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