That our brain works in a complex way is a grand
understatement. The labyrinthine of neuroscience can completely overwhelm the
ordinary reader. Even after an understanding has crystallized, the ordinary
reader may feel a nuanced appreciation has remained elusive. In The Tell Tale
Brain, VS Ramachandran has attempted to explain the intricacies (and sometimes
absurdities) of how our brain functions to the uninitiated reader.
And although
he may not have completely succeeded in doing so, his attempt has surely
resulted in a fascinating read - bringing to the average reader such
intellectually stimulating things as how art evolved, why does an autistic
child draws better than a French master, why does a person feel the presence of
a missing limb, why seeing colour is special and what seeing different colours
means – and much more.
Theories in neuro science are always evolving
with old theories getting reviewed, changed, challenged and sometimes replaced
by new ones. Similarly, there is no single theory on anything – scientists
disagree almost on everything leading to the existence of multiple theories on
everything. Ramachandran has discussed every contemporary and past stream of
thought and argument on every issue he has dealt with in The Tell Tale Brain.
The Tell Tale Brain, a title inspired from
Edger Allen Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, also explores every angle of a brain problem
– discussing not just the technical aspects (with respect to brain
functionalities) but also their evolution, evolutionary purpose and how
differently something has evolved for non-humans, and thus arriving at what
makes us unique among those we share the planet with.
Ramachandran says the ability to copy, among
other things, an ability mirror neurons are responsible for, makes humans
unique. This ability is not available in animals or at least at a level as
sophisticated as in humans. So while a cub can learn from its mother how to
hunt, it can never learn subtler skills, like language, from its parents or
from other animals. Ramachandran says this ability to learn from others (or
copy) is at the heart of accomplishments that are unique to humans, like
culture, language (unless you are among those who believe dolphins have a
language) etc. And this ability is also responsible for empathy, which again is
among the core abilities required for something which is uniquely human – art.
A survey was conducted where the participants were
given two sketches of a running horse, one done by an autistic child and the
other by a French master without telling the participants which one is sketched
by whom. And the majority found the one done by the autistic child better than the
one by the French master!
Ramachandran says there are two parts in our
brain (broadly), one of them is responsible for artistic output and the other
deals with logic-based activities. Since the autistic child’s other side is
completely dysfunctional (since autism causes loss of social or any other
skill) all his mental energies flow unconsumed into the part that’s concerned
with art, unlike in the case of the French master with whom some of the energy
is consumed by the non-artistic part of the brain. Read the book for more such insights
on how our brain works.
The Tell Tale Brain reads like a thriller V.V
Ramachandran’s erudition notwithstanding.
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