Reviewing ‘The Telltale Brain: Unlocking the mystery of Human Nature’, by VS Ramachandran – first published: 2011
This book came to me at a later stage in my research into human communication than the one I mentioned last week; but it grabbed my attention and drew me in for very similar reasons:
• It’s written for the intelligent layperson (I hope I can claim to be one of those!)
• It’s full of stories and
• The author isn’t afraid to have a bit of fun between the serious business.
The chapter titles include:
‘1 Phantom Limbs and Plastic Brains’
‘3 Loud Colours and Hot Babes’ and
‘6 the Power of Babble’
Before I talk about the content, I must just mention something about my reading experience – something you’re unlikely to be able to benefit from – unless, by chance, you happen to be a member of the RNIB Talking Book Library? No, I didn’t think so …
Without wishing in any way to do down the volunteers who read a lot of the library content, the standard is, shall we say, variable? Some readers are excellent, but some are not so. Quite often, even if you start a book with a brilliant reader, they don’t read the whole thing.
This book, though, was read entirely by one person – who didn’t just ‘read’ it – he brought it to life. The actor, Christopher Ragland, gave Professor Ramachandran a voice which, although completely different in terms of accent etc, captured the passion of the original beautifully. Then he went one step further and gave the people in the author’s stories their own voices!
Sorry – this version is only available from RNIB – but I couldn’t talk about the book without mentioning the reading. I was so impressed, I’ve passed my comments on to the library – and to the reader. I’m doing a lot of work around audiobook production at the moment and this was a real ‘How to …’ guide.
So to the subjectmatter:
This time, I was looking for answers to questions beyond language – even beyond communication. How we communicate is the end result of so many other aspects of behaviour. So I wanted to get a handle on some of that behaviour and the internal and external influences that shape it.
Above all, I wanted to begin to understand the uniquely complex organ at the centre of everything we do – the human brain.
Chapter 1 is, as the title suggests, all about phantom limbs.
It’s well documented that people who undergo amputations can often experience sensation – everything from itching to chronic pain – in their missing arm, leg etc. For years, no-one understood how this could happen – let alone how to treat it.
Professor Ramachandran’s work in this area has changed all that. Now, not only do doctors know what causes the problem; they can treat it, rather than just trying to manage it.
That’s where the ‘Plastic Brains’ of the chapter title come in. We’re talking plastic as in flexible, of course – not artificial!
Each side of the body is represented on a kind of sensory map on each side of the brain. It doesn’t follow the physical shape – the hand area is very close to the face – and you don’t want to know where your foot is!; but every part is represented. Even when a digit or a limb is no longer there, its brain representation remains. So, put simply, the brain doesn’t believe its gone.
Ramachandran’s breakthrough was the discovery that with the use of a very simple mirror box, he could train the brain of an amputee to rewire the relevant circuits so that the phantom limb – and the very real pain – disappeared.
Chapter 3 looks at the curious condition of synaesthesia. In very simple terms, this is where sensory information blends, so that people see numbers as certain colours, or taste specific foods when they touch particular fabrics etc – there are probably as many variations as there are individuals experiencing them!
It was once believed that people who reported these phenomina must be slightly barking – or at least, over-imaginative. Professor Ramachandran has proved, though, that their experiences are real and verifiable in a lab environment.
The most likely explanation, says the Professor, is cross-talk between different brain areas. I imagine it in terms of signals bleeding over each other – like listening to an old AM radio, where you not only got what you wanted to listen to, but also interference from nearby frequencies.
It doesn’t entirely surprise me to hear that there’s a higher incidence of synaesthesia among artists and other creatives than in the population as a whole. The creative mind looks at the world in wide, sweeping curves, rather than nice, straight lines, ignoring conventional boundaries. Being able to see numbers in colour, taste fabric etc could be quite an asset when it comes to the essence of creativity – linking the unlinkable and thinking the unthinkable.
In Chapter 6, Ramachandran goes in search of the evolutionary bridge between our ancient ancestors’ primitive grunts and our complex languages – which takes him into territory we visited last week – the relationship between language and thought.
He outlines conflicting arguments by:
• The late Stephen J Gould and
• Steven Pinker –
and disagrees with both.
His own take on this subject is what he calls ‘The synaesthetic boot-strapping theory’ – the idea (and I hope the Professor will forgive me for grossly over-simplifying!) that language may well have evolved from cross-sensory translation – turning sights into sounds.
Part of my work on long-distance communication is about turning sound into sight – so as you can probably imagine, I got very excited when I first read that!
We don’t have the space, or the time, to talk about all nine chapters here. One I could have dealt with, but didn’t, is:
‘4 the Neurons that Shaped Civilisation’.
I’ll come back to it next time, though, when I tell you about:
‘The Better Angels of our Nature’ by Steven Pinker.
In the meantime, if you have any:
• Questions
• Feedback or
• Communication issues you’d like to discuss,
come and talk to me! All the details are, of course, on the website.
speakforyourselfblog 
Leave a comment