Ramachandran: A Journey to the Center of Your Mind

V.S. Ramachandran, or Rama, is one of my favorite intellectuals. Not only does he roll his R's in a super cool way (like when he says things like "red rump," referring to monkeys' butts), the man is a legendary neurologist who combines scientific and philosophical thinking to try to understand the nature of consciousness.

In this truly fascinating TEDTalk presentation, he explains how documenting damage to very specific areas of the brain can help us understand how the normal brain works and produces different mental states and functions, and uses three very odd phenomena to make his point: the Capgras delusion (when brain-damaged people believe their loved ones have been replaced with impostors), phantom limbs (when you feel that an amputated body part is still attached to you) and synaesthesia (a condition in which sensory information is blended in your brain, like smelling colors or seeing sounds).

Check out more of his awesomeness here.