The Emerging Mind – Reith Lectures 2003

Vilayanur Ramachandran is Director of the Centre for Brain and Cognition and Professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California. Last year he gave the BBC’s Reith lectures on neuroscience in which he gave a flavour of his research and wide-ranging interests.

The lectures start with examples of neurological anomalies – phantom limbs, synesthesia and pain asymbolia – investigating what these tell us about the workings of the brain. Later in the series Ramachandran moves on to Art and Philosophy, working up from the coal-face of neuroscience to those questions with which we have had little scientific purchase in the past.

This man knows how to lecture. Just listening to the recordings is an electrifying experience, it must have been fabulous to be there. So do yourself a favour no matter what your level of knowledge in this area and have a listen. The complete series is available on the BBC website.


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Hello, and welcome to PsyBlog. Thanks for dropping by.

This site is all about scientific research into how the mind works.

It’s mostly written by psychologist and author, Dr Jeremy Dean.

I try to dig up fascinating studies that tell us something about what it means to be human.

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Author: Jeremy Dean

Psychologist, Jeremy Dean, PhD is the founder and author of PsyBlog. He holds a doctorate in psychology from University College London and two other advanced degrees in psychology. He has been writing about scientific research on PsyBlog since 2004. He is also the author of the book "Making Habits, Breaking Habits" (Da Capo, 2013) and several ebooks.