Vilayanur Ramachandran
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Biography
Vilayanur S. (V.S.) Ramachandran was born in 1951 in Tamil Nadu, India. Ramachandran initially trained as a doctor but later obtained a Ph.D. from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge in neuroscience and experimental psychology.
Ramachandran is currently the Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Professor in the Psychology Department and Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Contributions to Neuroscience
Ramachandran is credited with introducing the use of visual feedback as a treatment for phantom limb pain (the mirror box), rehabilitation after stroke, and RSD (complex regional pain syndrome). The most notable of these is the mirror box and phantom limbs. A phantom limb is a limb in which has been removed from the body but the person still identifies with the missing limb. Phantom limb pain is the residual feeling of pain from the phantom limb. This is evident from a conversation that Ramachandran had with one of his patients:
I placed a coffee cup in front of John and asked for him to grab it (with his phantom limb). Just as he said he was reaching out, I yanked away the cup.
J: “Ow!” he yelled. “Don’t do that!”
R: “What’s the matter?”
J: “Don’t do that!” he repeated. “I had just got my fingers around the handle when you pulled it. That really hurts!” (Ramachandran, 43)
To help John and other patients with similar conditions, Ramachandran developed the mirror box. The mirror box is a box with mirrors in it that gives the illusion of two limbs when there is just one limb inserted. The best example of this was the case of Phillip Martinez. His left phantom arm felt as if it was frozen. He was instructed to insert his phantom limb along with the other limb into the box and flex both arms. After a few weeks of using the box, his pain and phantom limb disappeared.
Ramachandran is also known for his new experiments and speculations (together with Edward Hubbard and David Brang) in the field of synesthesia and for creating a new wave of interest in this long-ignored phenomenon. More recently his work has focused on the cause of autism.
References
Ramachandran. V. S. Phantoms in the Brain. Ramachandran. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilayanur_S._Ramachandran Ramachandran. http://psy.ucsd.edu/chip/ramabio.html
External links:
This is a link to a talk by V.S. Ramachandran http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/184
