Dr. Ramachandran’s patient complained of a terrible arm cramp. It had been cramped, said the patient, for about ten years. If only he could move the arm, he thought the cramp would go away. The problem was, the man was no longer in possession of the arm, and thus couldn’t move it. It had been amputated about ten years ago.
Here’s Dr. Ramachandran’s solution:
He asked the man to hold a mirror perpendicular to his midline and then twist it until the mirror showed his intact arm in the place of the missing arm. As you might know from trying to shave a missed hair or from interlacing your fingers and trying to lift the third finger on your right hand, the mind’s perspective is easily tricked by mirrors.
Brain Map
Never fear, inefficient drivers, soon there will be a comprehensive map showing not only the pathways of the brain, but also which genes are responsible for paving the roads (and which are to blame for faulty paving). The Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle is mapping every gene responsible for the growth of the brain. Like the Human Genome Project, the map will allow biomedical researchers to link defects with genes, leading to new forms of diagnosis and treatment.
Such was the case with Dr. Ramachandran’s patient.
The patient wiggled his intact arm, while tricking his mind into seeing it as the phantom limb. Now that he was able to “move” this phantom limb, the cramp went away.