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Absolutely Brilliant Explanation of the Workings of the Mind watch!

ted.com — In a wide-ranging talk, Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage can reveal the connection between the internal structures of the brain and the corresponding functions of the mind. He talks about phantom limb pain, synesthesia (when people hear color or smell sounds), and the Capgras delusion, when brain-damaged people believe...

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  • hiscity, on 12/10/2007, -11/+13He's got a new slant on the mind as metaphor issue. Something about gyrating angles! Or was that gyrating angels? ;-)
  • kmalik, on 12/10/2007, -66/+1Holy *****! my indian has a long name....but this! He's giving apu a run for his money in the name game!
    • kmalik, on 12/10/2007, -14/+2indian friend**
    • pak314, on 12/10/2007, -2/+11Indian Hindu names often derive from the combination of names of many Gods and Goddesses. For example Ramachandran is the combination of Rama and Chandra. So you can pronounce it Rama-Chandran. Also most vowels tend to be the short type.

    • tyzent, on 12/10/2007, -2/+3my indian can beat up your indian
  • kmalik, on 12/10/2007, -2/+196BTW, TED is a ***** amazing site! i highly recommend watching their clips...you get inspired to change the world!
    • LloydBentsen, on 12/10/2007, -4/+21Awesome clips indeed, but they always make me feel worthless in comparison to their achievements rather than inspire me.
      • ruthless34, on 12/10/2007, -6/+1Chill out dude.
      • Grym11, on 12/10/2007, -1/+13Seriously. The one 18 year-old chick who was writing research papers suggesting a theoretical type of cancer treatment was the breaking point for me. I mean, honestly, I'm in medical school and have been studying biology since high school and I'm just now learning some of the stuff she was talking about--how did she know this crap!?!?!!

        Some people innovate. Some people inspire. Others just make you feel comparatively stupid. =(
    • rhinopig, on 12/10/2007, -1/+6Yeah. I enjoyed this one http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/102
    • artofwar420, on 12/10/2007, -1/+6I like their videos too, I think we get a glimpse of the genius that we harbor in our world. What great minds, elevated by the consciousness raising sciences. (I absolutely don't mean that in a spiritual way.)
    • gklitt, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3Absolutely. It's a joy to have such amazingly insightful content freely available to the world. I find that these talks are at the perfect level for the general public, explaining things from the ground up but not catering to idiots. They're great for all sorts of topics, especially the sciences.
    • RoryQ, on 12/10/2007, -0/+7Yeah the video play is very nice aswell, better interface than any other video streaming site i've used.
    • Ivthypain, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1I urge everyone to checkout the video recording of the latest symposium held last month for three days. there are many speakers that gave lectures on this stuff and wide range of scientific findings
      http://thesciencenetwork.org/BeyondBelief2/
      • foreverdaed, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1Thanks so much! I was excited for the ones this year, but i forgot about them! Too bad it is finals week soon....
    • hummer13, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1I am so glad I stumbled upon this on digg. I have been looking for a site like this for awhile. Usually I get bored with some of the top posts here but this site offers apparently hours of good info.
    • sophiaperennis, on 12/11/2007, -0/+2Yep, amazing site indeed. One of my favorites is the one by a French Buddhist Monk Matthieu Ricard. The topic is Habits of happiness.
      http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/191
  • handturkee, on 12/10/2007, -3/+52I agree. A lot of the talks are pretty boring, but some are absolutely fascinating. I'll put some more up soon.
  • ahothabeth, on 12/10/2007, -2/+22It is worth while listening to the 2003 Reith lectures from the BBC, http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/reith2003/, here Vilayanur Ramachandran gives five excellent talks.
  • Lixie, on 12/10/2007, -9/+60Anybody else curious why there's a drum set on stage?
    • zspitfire04, on 12/10/2007, -0/+10There are other presentations and what not during the small gathering.
    • Fragowell, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5Set up for a different presentation.
    • IanPatterson, on 12/10/2007, -1/+1Because they have lectures that go all day and just have the stage set up to handle all the performances
    • Chicken2nite, on 12/11/2007, -1/+1There's also a few guitars up there as well
  • tharju, on 12/10/2007, -15/+5if your palm sweat when you see a chair or a table..just acknowledge yourself and start humping.
  • onebadsummer, on 12/10/2007, -5/+21As a psych student, he really is, in all senses of the word, excellent.
    I'd be privileged to study with him.
  • aflaks, on 12/10/2007, -11/+39its even better stoned!
  • chaos7, on 12/10/2007, -5/+22Ramachandran is great! i have 2 of his books.
    • KDAY12, on 12/10/2007, -0/+7Yeah, I've been a fan for awhile as well. "Phantoms in the Brain" is my personal favorite book of his. He is a rock star of neurology.
      • theshizzler, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1That book inspired me to go into neuroscience.
    • jsd8cc, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1He is brilliant. I saw him on NOVA's "Secrets of the Mind" in my neuroscience class in college. He talks about these phenomena and others in depth.

      http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/
  • zeyad, on 12/10/2007, -4/+131Nice video player, I must say.
    • YKKonMyZipper, on 12/10/2007, -4/+1but no full screen, or am I doing something wrong?
      • BryanJK, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1There is a button too increase the video size. But its not like youtube and stretches a 320x240 video so you can see every pixel :P
  • Spoomeister, on 12/10/2007, -22/+2I can has transcript?
  • Hefelumpman, on 12/10/2007, -1/+15Just to echo some other people, TED is an awesome site, and I'd say the majority of the talks are *fascinating*. A large number are also available on youtube
  • kinerry, on 12/10/2007, -2/+3You should see the Richard Branson video...
  • tartrazine, on 12/10/2007, -8/+11youtube mirror: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl2LwnaUA-k
    • Ediebriquette, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5thanks for that link. I live in a country where it's impossible to watch it on TED directly. youtube is a good solution.
  • zspitfire04, on 12/10/2007, -12/+45And they picked Al Gore for the Nobel?
    • jmpeagle, on 12/10/2007, -2/+36only for peace, he didn't win anything of any academic value
  • lazyleo, on 12/10/2007, -5/+17Man that video is slick and a very good site too..about the brain things he talked about..i am pretty sure he just studied guys..no one can understand girls :D
    • LimeParrot, on 12/10/2007, -1/+14They have to make realistic goals. We'll leave girls for the neurologists of the 29th century.
    • liquidpele, on 12/10/2007, -2/+14He did talk about studying people with damaged brains. I assumed he meant women...
      I kid! I kid!
      • Drakoi, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1that made me laugh. let's see if people can handle a little p.ic. humor
      • SPARTACVS, on 12/10/2007, -0/+4Careful or one of them might come in here and phantom PMS at you.
    • fef560, on 12/10/2007, -2/+4Damn you guys are hardcore. How do you manage to be so edgy and yet funny at the same time?
  • Joomal, on 12/10/2007, -3/+99Excellent. Do yourselves a favour and watch the entire 23 minutes.
    • LimeParrot, on 12/10/2007, -0/+6Definitely. I thought I'd get bored real quick but it was worth it.
    • ewhite2, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3Do yourself an even bigger favor and spend a night (or more) watching some other talks on TED too
  • fhernand, on 12/10/2007, -4/+27I actually ***** clapped with the audience because of his brilliant solution.. fascinating
    • Maynza, on 12/10/2007, -2/+8You probably clap at the movie theater too >_>
    • DavidGX, on 12/10/2007, -1/+1So did I, that really was a brilliant solution.
    • DeFex, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1hahahaha you have been well programmed.
    • GreenAlien, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2I thought i saw Richard Branson clap too, or was that just my imagination. Maybe it was a celebrity audience.
  • Timdegreat, on 12/10/2007, -2/+28Excellent speaker. I wish I could have him as a prof.
    • hsuperb0i, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1Having taken a class from him at the University of California San Diego, I agree that his talks are always captivating. go UCSD!!!
    • cryforfiji, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1I can honestly say that I was literally thinking the exact same thing.
  • concretemech, on 12/10/2007, -1/+7I've always been really interested in epistemology. I think the brain is like everything else, what we don't understand we attribute to god, and what we do understand is purely ruled by natural physical laws. I personally believe in epiphenominalism because i think the brain is all we need to explain human consciousness.
  • LimeParrot, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2'Split-brain" patients are also fascinating in terms of neurology. If you want to read about it, Wikipedia is a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-brain
  • bariswheel, on 12/10/2007, -2/+102Very glad to start seeing TED talks being dugg on digg. There are some amazing talks on that website. It costs thousands of dollars to attend these talks folks, they just started releasing it to the masses, for free, like Google Tech Talks. We're very fortunate to have this, pay your respects, pursue more TED talks, less videos of people doing gross things. The mind is like a parachute; you have to open it up to make it work.
    • m4csrgh3yk3v, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5metaphorically speaking
    • rajamouli2000, on 12/10/2007, -2/+1TED has got some cool stuff. TEDs where i saw the first workin prototype multitouch interaction surface. Have been hooked on to it ever since.
    • graeh, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3The TED talks are some of the most interesting and inspiring stuff there is to see on the internet. I've been watching them for about a year now I think - and this one is one of my favourites. When he described the use of the mirror for therapy and how it cured his patients I got chills, and he got a well, well deserved round of applause. It's no wonder he got a few extra minutes at the end of the talk, too. The more people that watch TED talks, the better.
    • Arcesius, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3Sooooo, if you don't open up your mind, you smack headlong into the ground at hundreds of miles per hour, breaking most of the bones in your body, and standing a very large chance of dying instantly? Intriguing.
  • u8eR, on 12/10/2007, -1/+13This guy is a genius.
  • sigafoo, on 12/10/2007, -0/+10that was very well done, i've even heard about most of the stuff before... but i was _really_ weirded out at the end with the shapes/names things, because i didn't have any gut feeling, or anything... And I also can never figure out metaphors... like at all. Yeah...
    • tetsuwan, on 12/10/2007, -2/+1I think you need your brain scanned, lol
  • nitroburn, on 12/10/2007, -2/+43I couldn't believe how simple of a solution he found for the phantom limb pain. It is just amazing when you think how large of a change that can make in a persons life and it is such a simple device. Dollar Store fix to a problem I bet many are willing to pay thousands+ to rid them selves of. Not that you don't need a doctor.
    • LimeParrot, on 12/10/2007, -0/+6Yep. That was a genius solution. Chronic pain ruins your life...
  • sigafoo, on 12/10/2007, -15/+4asdf (sorry double post, bury me)
    • JapaneseEconomy, on 12/10/2007, -6/+2NEVER! I'm digging you up + give a shout to all my friends to digg you up + create 2 new accounts just to digg you up
  • badmephisto, on 12/10/2007, -1/+14that keeky buuba demo was amazing
    • jasdf, on 12/10/2007, -1/+2I must be retarded, I didn't get it.
      • teh_techie, on 12/10/2007, -3/+2Yes, you must be.
      • mygans, on 12/10/2007, -2/+2just look at both pics and figure out which one is kiki and buba.....everyone picks sharper image as kiki bcos of somethin somethin does somethin in ur brain...
        • matude, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5not something something but buba is just a smooth thing to say, like the image on the left has smooth edges.. and kiki sounds really sharp, just like the right image.
          but yea, pretty amazing example.
  • utyyebi, on 12/10/2007, -1/+1His talk further explains geniuses like Daniel Tammet (Tammet can calculate pi to 20,000 decimal places). Look for Tammet's videos on youtube, its crazy.
    • jasdf, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah, this guy was on Brain Man where he had Daniel model numbers out of clay.
    • quiznos, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1I thought it was 2500 decimals. Either way, the guy's amazing. He sees the numbers as a landscape.
  • ToKnow, on 12/10/2007, -1/+62Ramachandran is amazing. Not only do I enjoy his works, but I also love how he pronounces his R's.
  • thredden, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5umm check out the one on DNA spell casting.... i concur, great site!

    http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/183
  • ihyddimo, on 12/10/2007, -1/+10WELP.

    I feel pretty good right now. This man is a professor at my school and I have the option of taking one of his classes within the next two years.

    ***** sweet. I feel blessed. 0=)
    • rameznabel, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1i think u gona feel ***** when he start talking about the affect of high acetylecoline on the brains cells
      sure it deferent when attend science class and public talke
  • Spazkake, on 12/10/2007, -2/+47He should move on to solving the "phantom vibrate" from cell phones.
    • Maynza, on 12/10/2007, -1/+3They already have, it's a Pavlovian response.
    • hiscity, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1Doh! The dog salivates when the bell is rung. The dog does not hear a bell when it salivates.

      As for the phantom cell phone vibration... you don't suppose the same thing would happen if the cell phone enabled vibrator were.... on second thought, let's not go there.
  • davidmcraney, on 12/10/2007, -0/+32This is the best link ever on Digg.
    • handturkee, on 12/10/2007, -1/+7Didn't know it would get such a great response. Thanks!
    • DavidGX, on 12/10/2007, -1/+1I think you're right, at least, it's the best thing I'VE ever seen on Digg.
  • Laughto, on 12/10/2007, -1/+16That site has an awesome rating system
  • widdelywah292, on 12/10/2007, -0/+9i rrrreally like the way he rrrrrrrolls his rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrs. lol great vid.
  • d0odx, on 12/10/2007, -0/+9i would digg this 100 times if i could. Fantastic.
  • savethemooses, on 12/10/2007, -1/+78No way, TED. Nu-uh. You're not going to keep me up late watching videos this time. Not during finals week.
    Aw, crap.
    • mylrea, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3yep. me. too. and i just logged in to post this comment – no sleep tonight.
  • PowerLlama, on 12/10/2007, -0/+8I would absolutely love to go to TED some day. But then I would realize how dumb I really am.
    • fcukbush, on 12/10/2007, -3/+2You don't need to go to TED to realize that.
  • venicerocco, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3Ramachandran is a genius. He is featured quite prominently in this DVD box set: http://www.amazon.com/Consciousness-Hameroff-Newbe ...
  • stephenpjc, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3I love his pronunciation of "rrrrrrare"
  • aryo, on 12/10/2007, -1/+15is that richard branson at the very last second standing and giving applause?
  • RossDuprey, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1That...was...awesome!!! He is a good speaker too.
  • hstrijew, on 12/10/2007, -0/+5How does he explain the people with "water-brains", there are some people people who have some 90% of their skull filled with some large cyst of liquid and they have only 10% of brain mass yet operate entirely normal?
    • teh_techie, on 12/10/2007, -0/+3I wouldn't say ENTIRELY normal. I've known a few people in my life with this, and they had issues in social situations, and just general comprehension.
      • toastjam, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2I saw a chart somewhere that explained that it's kinda like the 80/20 rule... the last 80% of your brain accounts for 20% of your intelligence...

        Basically, you can lose a lot of general brain functioning and not be affected much at all on tasks which wouldn't have challenged you otherwise. But if it's a task that was at the limits of your abilities to begin with, you don't just get slower, you pretty much can't do it at all
  • luke374, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2If I were to buy one of his books, can anybody recommend one? (I'm sure they're all good)
    • theshizzler, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2Phantoms in the Brain. His talk was a general summary of a couple of the chapters, but its completely full of similar solutions he's found to unconventional psychlogical/neurological disorders. Best of all, of course, is his simple explanation as to why his solutions worked.
    • obeythefist, on 12/11/2007, -0/+1"A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness" is a quick and easy read that touches on many topics. Really gives you a good starting point for his other stuff.
  • Demented05, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1Wow. That was an amazing presentation!
  • awkwardmoment, on 12/10/2007, -0/+7Brilliant!! Somebody get this man a Guinness.
    • mal1964, on 12/10/2007, -0/+2I would like to hear those two guys give a speech on the brain.
    • NecroSexy, on 12/10/2007, -1/+2mmm beer--oh...
  • mal1964, on 12/10/2007, -1/+3The more they know about the brain the more they don't know. I think the brain will out smart them for a while still . Its a three pound mass of jelly I'm amazed what they do know.
  • wetard57, on 12/10/2007, -0/+6like the player and his name, Vilayanur Ramachandran
  • papavb, on 12/10/2007, -0/+1Ramachandran is absolutely brilliant (cool voice too), watch the beyond belief videos to see more of his research
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