Phantoms in the Brain

Knowledge Graph: Phantoms in the Brain (V. S. Ramachandran, 1998)

Editorial spotlight: ↑ the mirror box — tricking the brain to cure phantom pain

Concepts

• Ramachandran's phantom limb phenomenon (importance 5): The vivid sensation of a missing limb that persists after amputation, complete with position sense, movement, and often pain. Central case study driving brain remapping insights.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's cortical remapping (importance 5): The brain's ability to reassign sensory territories when input is lost — face sensation colonizing the hand area after arm amputation. Core mechanistic insight.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Capgras delusion (importance 5): The belief that a loved one has been replaced by an identical impostor. Ramachandran links it to severed connections between visual recognition and emotional limbic response.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• anosognosia (denial of illness) (importance 5): Patients with left-side paralysis from right-hemisphere stroke who adamantly deny their arm is paralyzed, confabulating elaborate excuses.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• blindsight phenomenon (importance 4): Patients with V1 damage who report total blindness but can accurately point to or avoid objects using intact subcortical visual pathways.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• synesthesia (cross-sensory perception) (importance 4): Involuntary blending of senses — seeing numbers as inherently colored, tasting shapes. Ramachandran links to excessive cross-wiring between cortical maps.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• neural basis of self (importance 4): The subjective sense of 'I' emerges from integration across multiple brain modules. Damage to specific regions fragments the self.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• perceptual filling-in (importance 4): The brain constructs complete percepts by extrapolating from fragmentary input — you 'see' continuity across the blind spot.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• the qualia problem (importance 4): Why does neural firing produce subjective experience — the redness of red, the painfulness of pain? The hard problem of consciousness.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) (importance 4): The minimal set of neural events jointly sufficient for a specific conscious experience. Ramachandran seeks these through clinical lesion studies.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• adult cortical plasticity (importance 4): The adult brain continuously reorganizes in response to injury and experience. Phantoms and remapping prove this extends to primary sensory cortex.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• mirror neuron system (importance 4): Neurons that fire both when performing an action and when observing another perform it. May underlie imitation, empathy, theory of mind.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• emergence from neural networks (importance 4): Consciousness and self emerge from neural interactions the way wetness emerges from H₂O molecules — not present in parts, only in ensemble.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• TLE-associated hyperreligiosity (importance 3): Intense religious preoccupation and feelings of cosmic significance in some temporal lobe epilepsy patients.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• hemispatial neglect (importance 3): Right parietal damage causes patients to ignore the left side of space — eating only right half of plate, shaving only right face.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Charles Bonnet syndrome (importance 3): Vivid visual hallucinations in people with eye disease or blindness — the visual cortex spontaneously generates imagery when deprived of input.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• von Uexküll's Umwelt (importance 3): Each species inhabits a unique perceptual world shaped by its sensory apparatus — a bat's sonar reality vs. human vision.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• body image vs. body schema distinction (importance 3): Body image = conscious percept of your body. Body schema = unconscious sensorimotor map guiding action. Phantom limbs affect both differently.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• referred sensation phenomenon (importance 3): Stimulation of one body region evokes sensation in another — face-to-phantom transfer in amputees is an extreme case.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's neuroaesthetics principles (importance 3): Art exploits peak shift, perceptual grouping, and contrast — the brain's feature-extraction biases. Beauty is a bug turned feature.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• neural basis of metaphor (importance 3): The brain reuses sensory maps for abstract thought — 'grasping' an idea activates motor circuits. Language bootstraps from embodied experience.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• theory of mind (importance 3): The capacity to attribute mental states to others — beliefs, desires, intentions. Emerges around age 4; impaired in autism.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• efference copy mechanism (importance 3): Motor commands send a predictive copy to sensory cortex to cancel expected sensations — distinguishes self from world.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• sense of agency (importance 3): The feeling that 'I' caused an action. Depends on match between motor intention and sensory outcome. Disrupted in alien hand.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Bayesian perception framework (importance 3): The brain combines sensory evidence with prior expectations to generate percepts — explains filling-in, illusions, top-down effects.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• neural basis of confabulation (importance 3): Making up plausible but false explanations for one's actions or beliefs — anosognosia is extreme case, but healthy left hemisphere does it constantly.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• somatoparaphrenia (importance 2): Delusion that one's own limb belongs to someone else — often accompanies anosognosia after right parietal damage.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• pain asymbolia (importance 2): Rare condition where patients detect painful stimuli but don't find them distressing — dissociation of pain sensation from suffering.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• cortical magnification (importance 2): Disproportionate cortical territory devoted to functionally important body parts — lips and fingers get huge representation.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• peak shift in visual aesthetics (importance 2): Exaggerating distinctive features beyond reality enhances recognition and appeal — caricatures are more 'like' the person than photos.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• syntactic recursion (importance 2): The ability to embed phrases within phrases infinitely — 'the cat the dog the man saw chased ran'. Uniquely human linguistic capacity.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• alien hand syndrome (importance 2): A hand that performs purposeful actions without conscious control — often after corpus callosum or frontal damage. Feels like someone else's hand.. Source: (from training memory of book).

Claims

• Ramachandran's learned paralysis hypothesis (importance 4): Phantom pain results from the brain learning that motor commands to move the limb fail repeatedly before amputation. Mirror box unlearns this paralysis.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's fusiform-amygdala disconnect (importance 4): Capgras results from intact visual face recognition without the accompanying emotional warmth, forcing a rationalization of impostor replacement.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's left-hemisphere interpreter (importance 4): The left brain constantly creates coherent narratives to explain sensory input. In anosognosia, it denies paralysis because acknowledging it would break the narrative.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's hemispheric rivalry model (importance 4): The two brain hemispheres maintain competing world models — left optimistic/confabulatory, right realistic/vigilant. Damage tips the balance.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's consciousness requires cortical loops (importance 4): Blindsight proves that visual processing can occur without awareness — conscious qualia emerge only when cortical feedback loops are intact.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's 'God module' hypothesis (importance 4): Temporal lobe circuits may be specialized for attaching deep significance to categories — overdrive produces religious experience.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's free will as post-hoc narrative (importance 4): The left hemisphere interpreter constructs the feeling of conscious volition after-the-fact to explain actions initiated by unconscious modules.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's reductionism defense (importance 4): You are nothing but a pack of neurons — but that 'nothing but' encompasses love, art, meaning. Reduction doesn't diminish, it explains.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's brain-as-VR-engine metaphor (importance 4): The brain constructs a internal simulation of reality from fragmentary sensory hints — perception is controlled hallucination.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis (importance 4): Mind is not monolithic but composed of semi-independent specialized modules — face recognition, language, body schema, etc.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's post-hoc rationalization as default (importance 4): Most of our explanations for why we did something are retrospective justifications, not true causes — the interpreter module narrates the self.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's adjacent-map cross-activation (importance 3): Number and color areas sit adjacent in fusiform gyrus. Synesthesia results from abnormal cross-talk between neighboring cortical modules.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's parietal attention spotlight (importance 3): Right parietal lobe directs attention to both sides of space; left parietal only to right side. Right damage leaves only rightward attention.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's release hallucination model (importance 3): When sensory input drops, the deprived cortex becomes hyperactive and generates spurious signals — perceived as hallucinations.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's zombie thought experiment (importance 3): Could you build a functionally identical being that processes information without inner experience? If yes, then qualia need explanation beyond function.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's dual-consciousness in split-brain (importance 3): After callosum section, each hemisphere has separate awareness — you can simultaneously hold contradictory beliefs in left vs. right brain.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's multisensory body ownership (importance 3): The sense of body ownership emerges from integrating vision, touch, and proprioception. Fake synchrony hijacks this integration.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's evolutionary neurology (importance 3): Brain quirks often reflect evolutionary compromises — denial may protect self-esteem, synesthesia may link abstract concepts.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's synesthetic language origin (importance 3): Language may have bootstrapped from synesthetic cross-modal mappings — 'small' sounds use high-frequency vowels across all languages.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's broken-mirror theory of autism (importance 3): Autism may involve dysfunctional mirror neuron systems, impairing imitation, empathy, and social understanding.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's embodied simulation account (importance 3): Understanding others requires internally simulating their actions and sensations — mirror neurons provide the neural substrate.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's efference copy failure in schizophrenia (importance 3): Auditory hallucinations may result from broken efference copy — inner speech isn't recognized as self-generated, perceived as external voices.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's low-tech experimental philosophy (importance 3): Major insights come from simple bedside tests (mirror, Q-tip, ice water) rather than expensive imaging — clinical cleverness over technology.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's consciousness-as-next-frontier claim (importance 3): Understanding qualia and self is now tractable via clinical neurology — we're at the threshold of solving what seemed forever mysterious.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's pain gate control theory application (importance 2): Touch signals can close pain gates in the spinal cord — explains why rubbing an injury reduces pain perception.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Ramachandran's aesthetic isolation principle (importance 2): Art works by isolating and amplifying single perceptual dimensions — outline drawing removes color/texture noise, focusing attention.. Source: (from training memory of book).

Empirical results

• chronic phantom limb pain (importance 4): Intense, persistent pain in the missing limb — often a clenched fist sensation. Resistant to conventional treatments, responded to mirror therapy.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• face-to-phantom-hand sensory transfer (importance 4): Touching specific spots on the face of arm amputees evokes vivid sensation in corresponding phantom fingers. Direct evidence of cortical takeover.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• transient denial reversal via vestibular stimulation (importance 3): Anosognosia patients briefly acknowledge their paralysis during caloric stimulation, then revert to denial when effect wears off.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• synesthetic pop-out effect (importance 3): Synesthetes detect embedded shapes faster than controls, proving their color experiences are perceptual, not metaphorical.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• MEG-confirmed cortical reorganization in amputees (importance 3): Touching amputee's face activates the former hand area in somatosensory cortex — direct imaging evidence of remapping.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• elevated GSR to religious stimuli in TLE (importance 2): TLE patients with hyperreligiosity show significantly higher galvanic skin response to words like 'God' compared to controls.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• tactile extinction in neglect (importance 2): Neglect patients can feel single touches on either side, but when both sides touched simultaneously, only report right-side sensation.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• scotoma completion with texture (importance 2): Patients with cortical blind spots (scotomas) report seeing continuous wallpaper patterns spanning the gap, not blank holes.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• bouba-kiki sound-shape correspondence (importance 2): Sharp phonemes mapped to angular shapes, soft phonemes to curves. Suggests abstract concepts emerge from cross-modal pattern extraction.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• absent mu suppression in autism (importance 2): Children with autism show reduced or absent mu-wave suppression during action observation, supporting broken-mirror hypothesis.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• inability to self-tickle (importance 2): You can't tickle yourself because the cerebellum predicts sensory consequences of self-generated movement and cancels them out.. Source: (from training memory of book).

Methods

• Ramachandran's mirror box therapy (importance 5): Using a mirror to reflect the intact limb, creating the visual illusion of the phantom limb moving normally. Resolved chronic phantom limb pain in multiple patients.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• neurological lesion method (importance 5): Ramachandran's signature approach — study how brains break to understand how they work. Pathology reveals normal function.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• single-case deep investigation (importance 4): Rather than population studies, Ramachandran examines individual cases intensively — each patient is a natural experiment.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• GSR testing in Capgras (importance 3): Measuring skin conductance when viewing faces. Normal subjects show arousal spikes for loved ones; Capgras patients show flat response.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• cold water caloric test (importance 3): Injecting ice water into the left ear canal temporarily restores awareness of paralysis in anosognosia patients by activating right hemisphere.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• rubber hand illusion (importance 3): Stroking a visible fake hand while stroking the hidden real hand in sync — subjects feel the rubber hand as their own.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• embedded-figure synesthesia test (importance 2): Showing synesthetes arrays of 2s with embedded triangle of 5s. They instantly see the triangle via color pop-out; controls see only numbers.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• GSR testing with religious words (importance 2): Measuring skin conductance when TLE patients view religious vs. neutral words. Hyperreligious patients show exaggerated arousal.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• blind spot filling-in demonstration (importance 2): Closing one eye and fixating while moving a target into the blind spot region — the background pattern appears continuous.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• binocular rivalry paradigm (importance 2): Presenting different images to each eye — perception alternates between the two, revealing neural basis of conscious access.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• magnetoencephalography (MEG) mapping (importance 2): Recording magnetic fields from neural activity to map cortical organization. Used to confirm face-area invasion of hand territory in amputees.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• bouba/kiki shape-naming test (importance 2): Showing a spiky shape and a rounded blob, asking which is 'bouba' vs. 'kiki'. 95% agreement across cultures — sound symbolism is universal.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• mu-wave EEG suppression test (importance 2): Recording 8-13 Hz oscillations over motor cortex. Normal subjects suppress mu waves when observing action; autistic subjects don't.. Source: (from training memory of book).

Entities

• Penfield homunculus (importance 4): The distorted body map in primary somatosensory cortex where hand area sits adjacent to face area. Explains why face touches trigger phantom hand sensations.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• right parietal lobe damage (importance 4): Stroke in right hemisphere, especially parietal cortex, produces left neglect and denial. Left hemisphere continues generating rationalizations unchecked.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) (importance 4): Seizure disorder affecting limbic structures. Associated with hyperreligiosity, hypergraphia, and altered sense of self.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• fusiform face area (importance 3): Temporal lobe region specialized for face recognition. Intact in Capgras patients, but disconnected from amygdala emotional tagging.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• V1 (primary visual cortex) (importance 3): The first cortical processing station for visual input. Damage produces cortical blindness but spares ancient midbrain pathways.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• subcortical visual pathway (superior colliculus) (importance 3): Evolutionarily ancient route from retina to midbrain, bypassing V1. Mediates unconscious spatial orienting in blindsight.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• number-color synesthesia (importance 3): Most common synesthesia type where digits evoke specific hues (e.g., 5 is always red). Runs in families, suggesting genetic basis.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• split-brain (callosotomy) patients (importance 3): Epilepsy patients with severed corpus callosum. Each hemisphere processes information independently — dual consciousness.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• angular gyrus (importance 3): Parietal region where visual, auditory, and tactile maps converge. Ramachandran proposes it mediates cross-modal abstraction and metaphor.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Rizzolatti's monkey mirror neurons (importance 3): Discovered in macaque premotor cortex — neurons responding to both self and observed grasping. Ramachandran extends to human social cognition.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• macular degeneration (importance 2): Progressive vision loss from retinal damage. Commonly triggers Charles Bonnet hallucinations in elderly patients.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Libet readiness potential experiments (importance 2): Brain activity precedes conscious decision to move by 300-500ms. Suggests motor preparation occurs before awareness of 'choosing'.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• anterior cingulate cortex (importance 2): Midline structure involved in error detection, conflict monitoring, and sense of agency. May generate feeling of willed action.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Wernicke's area (importance 2): Posterior temporal region critical for language comprehension. Damage produces fluent but meaningless speech.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Broca's area (importance 2): Frontal region governing speech production. Damage produces effortful, telegraphic speech with preserved comprehension.. Source: (from training memory of book).
• Fodor's modularity theory (importance 2): Philosopher who proposed mind consists of informationally encapsulated input modules plus central cognition. Ramachandran extends via clinical data.. Source: (from training memory of book).

Relations

• Ramachandran's phantom limb phenomenon evidences Ramachandran's cortical remapping
• Ramachandran's cortical remapping builds-on Penfield homunculus
• face-to-phantom-hand sensory transfer evidences Ramachandran's cortical remapping
• face-to-phantom-hand sensory transfer exemplifies Penfield homunculus
• Ramachandran's mirror box therapy refutes chronic phantom limb pain
• Ramachandran's learned paralysis hypothesis supports chronic phantom limb pain
• Ramachandran's mirror box therapy refutes Ramachandran's learned paralysis hypothesis
• Capgras delusion requires fusiform face area
• Capgras delusion exemplifies Ramachandran's fusiform-amygdala disconnect
• GSR testing in Capgras evidences Ramachandran's fusiform-amygdala disconnect
• anosognosia (denial of illness) requires right parietal lobe damage
• Ramachandran's left-hemisphere interpreter supports anosognosia (denial of illness)
• cold water caloric test enables transient denial reversal via vestibular stimulation
• transient denial reversal via vestibular stimulation evidences Ramachandran's hemispheric rivalry model
• Ramachandran's hemispheric rivalry model supports Ramachandran's left-hemisphere interpreter
• blindsight phenomenon requires V1 (primary visual cortex)
• blindsight phenomenon enables subcortical visual pathway (superior colliculus)
• blindsight phenomenon evidences Ramachandran's consciousness requires cortical loops
• synesthesia (cross-sensory perception) exemplifies number-color synesthesia
• Ramachandran's adjacent-map cross-activation supports synesthesia (cross-sensory perception)
• embedded-figure synesthesia test evidences synesthetic pop-out effect
• temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) enables TLE-associated hyperreligiosity
• Ramachandran's 'God module' hypothesis supports TLE-associated hyperreligiosity
• GSR testing with religious words enables elevated GSR to religious stimuli in TLE
• elevated GSR to religious stimuli in TLE evidences Ramachandran's 'God module' hypothesis
• hemispatial neglect requires right parietal lobe damage
• tactile extinction in neglect exemplifies hemispatial neglect
• Ramachandran's parietal attention spotlight supports hemispatial neglect
• blind spot filling-in demonstration enables scotoma completion with texture
• scotoma completion with texture evidences perceptual filling-in
• Charles Bonnet syndrome requires macular degeneration
• Ramachandran's release hallucination model supports Charles Bonnet syndrome
• von Uexküll's Umwelt motivates the qualia problem
• Ramachandran's zombie thought experiment supports the qualia problem
• neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs) requires the qualia problem
• binocular rivalry paradigm enables neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs)
• split-brain (callosotomy) patients evidences Ramachandran's dual-consciousness in split-brain
• Ramachandran's dual-consciousness in split-brain contradicts neural basis of self
• Ramachandran's free will as post-hoc narrative supports Ramachandran's left-hemisphere interpreter
• Libet readiness potential experiments evidences Ramachandran's free will as post-hoc narrative
• anterior cingulate cortex enables sense of agency
• rubber hand illusion evidences Ramachandran's multisensory body ownership
• Ramachandran's multisensory body ownership supports body image vs. body schema distinction
• somatoparaphrenia contradicts Ramachandran's multisensory body ownership
• pain asymbolia evidences the qualia problem
• Ramachandran's pain gate control theory application supports referred sensation phenomenon
• referred sensation phenomenon exemplifies face-to-phantom-hand sensory transfer
• cortical magnification supports Penfield homunculus
• adult cortical plasticity enables Ramachandran's cortical remapping
• magnetoencephalography (MEG) mapping enables MEG-confirmed cortical reorganization in amputees
• MEG-confirmed cortical reorganization in amputees evidences Ramachandran's cortical remapping
• Ramachandran's evolutionary neurology supports anosognosia (denial of illness)
• Ramachandran's neuroaesthetics principles requires peak shift in visual aesthetics
• peak shift in visual aesthetics supports Ramachandran's aesthetic isolation principle
• neural basis of metaphor requires angular gyrus
• bouba/kiki shape-naming test enables bouba-kiki sound-shape correspondence
• bouba-kiki sound-shape correspondence evidences Ramachandran's synesthetic language origin
• Ramachandran's synesthetic language origin builds-on synesthesia (cross-sensory perception)
• angular gyrus enables neural basis of metaphor
• Wernicke's area requires angular gyrus
• Broca's area requires Wernicke's area
• syntactic recursion builds-on neural basis of metaphor
• theory of mind requires mirror neuron system
• mirror neuron system builds-on Rizzolatti's monkey mirror neurons
• Ramachandran's broken-mirror theory of autism supports mirror neuron system
• mu-wave EEG suppression test enables absent mu suppression in autism
• absent mu suppression in autism evidences Ramachandran's broken-mirror theory of autism
• Ramachandran's embodied simulation account requires mirror neuron system
• inability to self-tickle evidences efference copy mechanism
• Ramachandran's efference copy failure in schizophrenia requires efference copy mechanism
• alien hand syndrome contradicts sense of agency
• sense of agency requires efference copy mechanism
• Ramachandran's reductionism defense supports emergence from neural networks
• emergence from neural networks supports neural basis of self
• neurological lesion method requires single-case deep investigation
• Ramachandran's low-tech experimental philosophy exemplifies Ramachandran's mirror box therapy
• Ramachandran's brain-as-VR-engine metaphor supports perceptual filling-in
• Bayesian perception framework supports Ramachandran's brain-as-VR-engine metaphor
• Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis builds-on Fodor's modularity theory
• Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis supports Capgras delusion
• neural basis of confabulation exemplifies anosognosia (denial of illness)
• Ramachandran's post-hoc rationalization as default generalizes neural basis of confabulation
• Ramachandran's post-hoc rationalization as default requires Ramachandran's left-hemisphere interpreter
• Ramachandran's consciousness-as-next-frontier claim requires neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs)
• Ramachandran's phantom limb phenomenon evidences adult cortical plasticity
• Ramachandran's cortical remapping exemplifies adult cortical plasticity
• synesthesia (cross-sensory perception) evidences adult cortical plasticity
• perceptual filling-in exemplifies Bayesian perception framework
• neural basis of self requires Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis
• neural basis of self requires neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs)
• body image vs. body schema distinction supports Ramachandran's phantom limb phenomenon
• Ramachandran's mirror box therapy requires body image vs. body schema distinction
• Ramachandran's hemispheric rivalry model evidences split-brain (callosotomy) patients
• Ramachandran's neuroaesthetics principles builds-on synesthesia (cross-sensory perception)
• Ramachandran's synesthetic language origin builds-on mirror neuron system
• theory of mind requires neural basis of self
• mirror neuron system enables Ramachandran's embodied simulation account
• neurological lesion method enables Ramachandran's phantom limb phenomenon
• neurological lesion method enables Capgras delusion
• neurological lesion method enables anosognosia (denial of illness)
• neurological lesion method enables blindsight phenomenon
• single-case deep investigation requires Ramachandran's low-tech experimental philosophy
• Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis supports anosognosia (denial of illness)
• Ramachandran's mental modularity thesis supports blindsight phenomenon
• Ramachandran's brain-as-VR-engine metaphor supports Capgras delusion
• Ramachandran's brain-as-VR-engine metaphor supports Charles Bonnet syndrome
• Ramachandran's evolutionary neurology supports synesthesia (cross-sensory perception)
• Ramachandran's evolutionary neurology supports Ramachandran's hemispheric rivalry model
• Ramachandran's reductionism defense requires the qualia problem
• Ramachandran's free will as post-hoc narrative supports Ramachandran's reductionism defense
• Ramachandran's consciousness requires cortical loops requires neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs)
• the qualia problem requires Ramachandran's consciousness requires cortical loops

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