akk's blog

What is free will? What is body image? Why do we blush? What is art? What is the self? Who am I? Drawing from years of clinical research and medical practice, V.S. Ramachandran invites us to explore some of these daunting philosophical questions through the principles and findings of neuroscience in his book A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Imposter Poodles to Purple Numbers. Dr. Ramachandran has studied some of the most bizarre neurological syndromes ever recorded and in this book attempts to convey the promise that some of these problems may hold for science. In the book he discusses cases of synesthesia, hysteria, phantom

"Perhaps we are hallucinating all the time and what we call perception is arrived at by simply determining which hallucination best conforms to the current sensory input." V.S. Ramachandran here communicates the uncomfortable notion that what we perceive to be real is not reality at all. My body as I know it may really have a different form entirely, I may be typing into nothingness and the ghost that I’m sure I saw at summer camp may have been more real than I am. Maybe new agers do contact extra terrestrials and your dead relatives never really leave your side. Maybe. Does a distinction

Phantom Limbs and Acupuncture

Autism affects one in 166 children born in the United States and has doubled in prevalence over the past decade. This disorder has tragic repercussions for the children diagnosed with it and remains a mystery without a known cure. My autistic cousin Katie lives daily with the weight of this disorder and I intend to explore in this paper the repercussions it holds for many facets of her life.

Anne Kauth
February 22, 2008
Autism’s Possible Implications for the Mind and Brain
Autism affects one in 166 children born in the United States and has doubled in prevalence over the past decade. This disorder has tragic repercussions for the children diagnosed with it and remains a mystery without a known cure. My autistic cousin Katie lives daily with the weight of this disorder and I intend to explore in this paper the repercussions it holds for many facets of her life.