Mind Reading: Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran on unlearning pain

[BridgeTheGap]

Even before the discovery of "mirror neurons"— brain cells activated when we observe the actions of others that enable empathy — Dr. V.S. Ramachandran was using real mirrors to change the brain and relieve pain.

In the 1990s, Dr. Ramachandran devised mirror therapy to help amputees suffering from phantom limb pain — an agonizing experience in which patients feel pain "in" their missing limbs. By placing a mirror to reflect the existing limb in a position that makes it look like the missing one, the brain's distorted image of the phantom can be changed. When the amputee moves the existing limb into a comfortable position, the reflection in the mirror — the phantom limb — "moves" with it, and pain in that missing limb often disappears, sometimes forever.

The treatment is now widely accepted — not just for phantom limb pain, but for chronic pain of other types — and works in 70% to 80% of appropriate cases.

Ramachandran, who is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California–San Diego, has made a career of studying quirky neurological problems and finding not only new treatments for them but also profound insights into the way the brain works. I talked to him about his new book, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human.

Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/02/mind-reading-neuroscientist-v-s-ramachandran-on-unlearning-pain/#ixzz1DNchTtJV

[mike_c]

1. his 2005 book, "A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness" was one of the most fascinating...

...books on neuroscience that I've read in recent years. I'm really looking forward to reading The Tell-Tale Brain.

[eppur_se_muova]

2. His book "Phantoms in the Brain" describes many of these results ...

experimental therapies for amputees with "phantom limb" pain, and other unexpected neurological disorders. A really interesting read.