Secrets of the Brain Review

Solution Preview

I have deduced from your post that you are asking for help in completing Q1 and attached the full list of your current tasks so as to show the required task for you in completing Q1. Just send me a message if this is not the case and I shall try and help you further. I suggest using this simple outline:

1. Man & Phantom limbs - description, symptoms and treatment - 150 words
2. Stroke victims (same as above) - 150 words
3. Impostor parents - 150 words
4. Spiritual man - 150 words

I have supposed that you have reviewed these videos yourself and you only need guidance in completing the task. It's really a 'report' which requires you to reflect back on what you have viewed. I suggest that you use the listed resources to further explore the topic.

For Q1 -

Question 1
Secrets of the Mind Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran, is fascinated by patients who have unusual abilities or defects in the way they perceive the world. These include such puzzling phenomena as the phantom limb, or the inability to recognize a familiar face following a stroke. In "Secrets of the Mind," NOVA dramatizes the intimate stories of Ramachandran's encounters with his extraordinary patients. Based on the video describe the Dr. Ramachandran's work with these patients:
1. The man who continues to feel phantom sensations in his missing limb:
2. The female stroke victim who has a problem seeing activity on one side of her field of vision:
2. The young man with a head injury who believes his parents are impostors:
4. The young man who has seizures and hallucinations that produce profound spiritual feelings:
Your answers should include a description of the patient's problem (both the symptoms and the underlying cause), an account of Dr. Ramachandran's treatment and his rationale for why the treatment worked.

Links:
Watch the video:
Part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTSN9phMZzk
Part Two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On7jttGB7pw
Part Three: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8wwV50ylQ
PBSWebsite: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/mind/

Solution

Phantom Limb Phenomenon and Other Brain Conditions/Damages

It was in the Civil War that the notion of 'phantom limbs' were first coined when soldiers experienced 'phantom pains' arising from already amputated limbs (i.e. the soldier's brain 'tells' the soldier that it feels extreme pain on an already amputated leg). The notion of 'phantom limbs' was explained then as irritation of severed nerve endings known as 'neuromas' which were still sending signals to the brain, as per their function so that to removed the pain, doctors further amputated so as to severe the nerve endings further and hopefully, eliminate the pain. This condition, and many others show us the amazing workings of the brain as discussed in the cases reviewed below.

Case 1 - Man with the lost arm

Case 1 of Dr. Ramachandran's notes (2001) revealed the story of a man whose situation he describes as follows - "a patient who started experiencing a vivid phantom arm soon after amputation—nothing unusual so far—but after a few weeks developed a peculiar, gnawing sensation in his phantom." When his doctors cannot ...