|
|
Secrets of the Mind
|
|
|
|
Program Overview
|
|
|
Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, a world leader in brain science,
explores four patients with unusual delusional symptoms and shows
how their cases have implications for the way in which all humans
understand their world.
The program:
-
relates that Ramachandran's work has revealed clues about how
certain brain structures control fundamental thought processes.
-
describes the doctor's work with patients in whom the brain's
parietal lobes—which control spatial understanding and
visual recognition—have been damaged through injury or
stroke.
-
profiles Ramachandran's patients: One man who has lost an arm in
a motorcycle accident continues to feel phantom sensations in
his missing limb; a female stroke victim who has a problem in
sensing any activity on one side of her field of view; a young
man with a head injury who believes his parents are impostors;
and another young man with temporal lobe epilepsy who has
seizures and hallucinations that produce profound spiritual
feelings.
-
concludes with questions about whether human brains are
hard-wired for certain types of thoughts.
|
|
