VS Ramachandran : 3 clues to understanding your brain

VS Ramachandran at TED2007 (transcript)
3 clues to understanding your brain
Summary
The speaker is a neurologist and he studies the human brain and the functions and structure of the human brain.
This time, the way of approaching the function of the human brain is to look at patients with sustained damage to a small region of the brain.  It shows a highly selective loss of one function but not blunt.  Its intervention will map what the circuitry of the brain is generated.
He gave us three examples that are a Capgras syndrome, 1) Phantom limbs, 2) and  Synesthesia. 3)

The Capgras syndrome isThe Capgras syndrome is that the small brain part called the fusiform gyrus is damaged and people no longer recognize people's faces and they can't even recognize themselves in the mirror, however, they can still recognize people from voice.

Phantom limbs told sometimes is a curious syndrome that people continue vividly feel the presence of the missing arm or leg after amputating arm or leg. this comes from the brain learning. The brain learns something and it carries over into your body image, thus you feel the missing arm or leg even after amputating arm or leg. He says many times that the brain learns so even paralysis is also learned and when phantom paralysis is relearned again, it'll be overcome.  It seems to use mirrors.

Synesthesia is a mingling of the senses. All senses are distinct, though, these people muddle up their senses. There seems to be an abnormal gene and a mutation in the gene that causes this abnormal cross wiring. In the brain, for example, there are areas of the color and number. It's right next to each other, though, when there's some accidental cross-wiring between color and numbers, people see a number that is colored. They lose the ability to engage in something and also metaphors.

The brain has 100 billion nerve cells and little wisps of protoplasm are interacting with each other. It creates human nature and human consciousness. It's a basis of many uniquely human abilities like abstraction, metaphor, and creativity.  Thus even if a small part of the brain is damaged, something that is human nature and human consciousness is losing like his three examples. Understanding your brain will start like this.

Words in this story
paralysis /noun/ powerlessness, become immobile
numb /adj/  without sensation, without feeling