The Tell Tale Brain Summary

The Tell-Tale Brain, written by V. S. Ramachandran, was a very eye-opening book. In this book he is on a quest to find out what makes us human. He does this by analyzing different disorders and theories, referencing thought-provoking topics like evolution. Personally, I usually never read books about the brain or psychology, but after reading this one, I will definitely read more books like this. I already recommended it to many of my friends. The book is mostly comprised of Ramachandran’s ideas and supporting evidence, not many actual characters. However, he does refer to and acknowledge …show more content…
One of the main points of the book is that humans reached a point where their brains made major changes, letting us do things we were never able to do before. For example, he talks about how the inferior parietal lobe evolved in humans more than apes. That’s how humans started communicating and eventually developed languages years later. The apes’ lack of evolution in that part of the brain explains why they haven’t evolved like humans and communicate with set languages. He also writes about his nine laws of aesthetics, which include grouping, peak shifts, contrast, isolation, perceptual problem solving, abhorrence of coincidences, orderliness, metaphors, and symmetry. These aren’t laws he created, they’re just a result of ideas found when he observed different art pieces. These laws explain why we enjoy art. For each law, he gives an example of where this style can be seen. For example, peak shift is when we like to look at something with …show more content…
Of course like everything else, these laws are subject to evolve over time and change. The main theme of the book is that humans and animals are very similar… and different at the same time, he compares the two from a neurological standpoint. Ramachandran thinks that the evolution of animals deviated at humans, separating us from primates heavily. For this deviation he considers brain cells named mirror neurons, the culprit. According to the Society for Neuroscience, “mirror neurons appear to let us “simulate” not just other people’s actions, but the intentions and emotions behind those actions.” Ramachandran thinks that humans being able to imitate each other lead to us learning things and eventually becoming as complex as we are now. He even analyzes different disorders with a human to animal perspective, and why animals don’t get the same disorders. One event that I feel stands out more than all the others is when Ramachandran goes into the seven aspects of our sense of self. These aspects are unity, continuity, embodiment, privacy, social embedding, free will, and self-awareness. He compares these aspects to legs of a table, to hold up one self. Honestly, I don’t know why I find these aspects so significant to me, but they just hit home. These aspects are very thought provoking, I had to pause the book and think for some time before continuing after going over this part. All books can convey information to you, but not all books