Written with wit and enthusiasm, for the general
reader wishing to know more about the mechanics of their mind and how it may be
affected by changes in the brain, Ramachandran and Blakeslee provide a
thoroughly entertaining guide to some recent ‘breakthroughs’ in neurological
sleuthing. Largely expounding upon a series of perplexing neuropsychiatric case
studies seen as a clinical neuroscientist, Ramachandran presents himself as a
veritable ‘Sherlock Holmes’, using real anatomical data in an attempt to
account for the strange (and sometimes utterly bizarre) symptomology of his
patients. However, the task the authors set themselves is broader in appeal
than it might at first appear. They hope to convince us that conditions such as
‘phantom limb’ sensation (in limb amputees), phantom pregnancies, blindsight
(visual responsiveness without visual awareness), and Capgras’ syndrome (the
belief that familiar persons have been replaced by ‘imposters’) might readily
be explained by determinable changes in brain circuitry (neural plasticity).
Underlying these explanations of clinical presentation phenomena, there is a
real aspiration to help us understand the ways in which the normal human brain
works. Furthermore, our expectations are raised towards learning how our brain
activity gives rise to what we call personal consciousness, and to its very
existence.

Ramachandran’s claims are bold, and he perhaps
wishes the reader to believe that he has ‘genuinely solved’ the biological
basis of his patients’ symptomologies in some cases. However, others remaining
more elusive, awaiting their resolution for a later day. Reminiscent of the
writings of Oliver Sacks (who provides a supportive foreword to this Quill
edition) we are similarly entertained and enlightened, though presented with
more of the core ‘brain science’ in helping the reader assimilate the new view
being offered here in this volume.

            Although by no means acceptable to
many of his colleagues and critics in the neurosciences, Ramachandran’s
explanations do seem to ‘make sense’ in that the logic of his arguments are
sound, and the more successful clinical interventions so driven, do aid in
alleviating his patients’ conditions (e.g., the use of attention-directed
visual feedback of motive real limbs in a "mirror box" simulating the
motion of a virtual missing limb). However, whether the brain really achieves
such by resetting its ‘anomaly detector’ circuitry is another question
altogether. For the reader wishing to see these, or similar, clinical
presentations for themselves, I would recommend reading the book during the
same period as viewing the 2001 NOVA production "Secrets of the Mind"
(Broadcast as part of the Horizon series in the UK). Ramachandran is filmed
personally introducing many of the same symtomologies, and demonstrates the interventions
(with real clinical presentations) as described in this volume. When all is
told, over 12 Chapters of thoroughly absorbing reading will leave the reader
with a much improved understanding of the research findings obtained following
use of new brain-scanning tools in exploring the structure and function(s) of
the human brain: that it can change its structure over time – by normal or
accidental means; that such plasticity in structure can markedly affect our
behaviour, and our experience of it, often in quite remarkable (and predictable
?) ways; and that we should never take ourselves (or indeed our bodies) for
granted, as a ‘given’ in the course of our normal daily lives. Whether the
problem of human consciousness and its aetiology be solved here, I feel that I
must leave the reader to decide for themselves.

© 2003 Anthony Dickinson