imaging, but only to test specific hypotheses. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we are always grateful to have the high technology available—if we feel the need.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ALTHOUGH IT IS LARGELY A PERSONAL ODYSSEY, THIS BOOK RELIES heavily on the work of many of my colleagues who have revolutionized the field in ways we could not have even imagined even just a few years ago. I cannot overstate the extent to which I have benefited from reading their books. I will mention just a few of them here: Joe LeDoux, Oliver Sacks, Francis Crick, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Dan Dennett, Pat Churchland, Gerry Edelman, Eric Kandel, Nick Humphrey, Tony Damasio, Marvin Minsky, Stanislas Dehaene. If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of these giants. Some of these books resulted from the foresight of two enlightened agents—John Brockman and Katinka Matson—who have created a new scientific literacy in America and the world beyond. They have successfully reignited the magic and awe of science in the age of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, sound-bite news, and reality TV—an age when the hard-won values of the Enlightenment are sadly in decline.
Angela von der Lippe, my editor, suggested major reorganization of chapters and provided valuable feedback throughout every stage of revision. Her suggestions improved the clarity of presentation enormously.
Special thanks to four people who have had a direct influence on my scientific career: Richard Gregory, Francis Crick, John D. Pettigrew, and Oliver Sacks.
I would also like to thank the many people who either goaded me on to pursue medicine and science as a career or influenced my thinking over the years. As I intimated earlier, I would not be where I am were it not for my mother and father. When my father was convincing me to go into medicine, I received similar advice from Drs. Rama Mani and M. K. Mani. I have never once regretted letting them talk me into it. As I often tell my students, medicine gives you a certain breadth of vision while at the same time imparting an intensely pragmatic attitude. If your theory is right, your patient gets better. If your theory is wrong—no matter how elegant or convincing it may be—she gets worse or dies. There is no better test of whether you are on the right track or not. And this no- nonsense attitude then spills over into your research as well.
I also owe an intellectual debt to my brother V. S. Ravi, whose vast knowledge of English and Telugu literature (especially Shakespeare and Thyagaraja) is unsurpassed. When I had just entered medical school (premed), he would often read me passages from Shakespeare and Omar Khayyam’s
I thank Matthew Blakeslee, who did a superb job in helping edit the book. Over fifteen years ago, as my student, he also assisted me in constructing the very first crude but effective prototype of the “mirror box” which inspired the subsequent construction of elegant, ivory-inlaid mahogany ones at Oxford (and which are now available commercially, although I have no personal financial stake in them). Various drug companies and philanthropic organizations have distributed thousands of such boxes to war veterans from Iraq and amputees in Haiti.
I also owe a debt of gratitude to the many patients who cooperated with me over the years. Many of them were in depressing situations, obviously, but most of them were unselfishly willing to help advance basic science in whatever way they could. Without them this book could not have been written. Naturally, I care about protecting their privacy. In the interest of confidentiality, all names, dates, and places, and in some instances the circumstances surrounding the admission of the patient, have been disguised. The conversations with patients (such as those with language problems) are literal transcripts of videotapes, except in a few cases where I had to re-create our exchanges based on memory. In one case (“John,” in Chapter 2, who developed embolic stroke originating from veins around an inflamed appendix) I have described appendicitis as it usually presents itself since notes on this particular case were unavailable. And the conversation with this patient is an edited summary of the conversation as recounted by the physician who originally saw him. In all cases the key symptoms and signs and history that are relevant to the neurological aspect of patients’ problems are presented as accurately as possible. But other aspects have been changed—for example, a patient who is fifty rather than fifty-five may have had an embolism originating in the heart rather than leg—so that even a close friend or relative would be unable to recognize the patient from the description.
I turn now to thank friends and colleagues with whom I have had productive conversations over the years. I list them in alphabetical order: Krishnaswami Alladi, John Allman, Eric Altschuler, Stuart Anstis, Carrie Armel, Shai Azoulai, Horace Barlow, Mary Beebe, Roger Bingham, Colin Blakemore, Sandy Blakeslee, Geoff Boynton, Oliver Braddick, David Brang, Mike Calford, Fergus Campbell, Pat Cavanagh, Pat and Paul Churchland, Steve Cobb, Francis Crick, Tony and Hanna Damasio, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Anthony Deutsch, Diana Deutsch, Paul Drake, Gerry Edelman, Jeff Elman, Richard Friedberg, Sir Alan Gilchrist, Beatrice Golomb, Al Gore (the “real” president), Richard Gregory, Mushirul Hasan, Afrei Hesam, Bill Hirstein, Mikhenan (“Mikhey”) Horvath, Ed Hubbard, David Hubel, Nick Humphrey, Mike Hyson, Sudarshan Iyengar, Mumtaz Jahan, Jon Kaas, Eric Kandel, Dorothy Kleffner, E. S. Krishnamoorthy, Ranjit Kumar, Leah Levi, Steve Link, Rama Mani, Paul McGeoch, Don McLeod, Sarada Menon, Mike Merzenich, Ranjit Nair, Ken Nakayama, Lindsay Oberman, Ingrid Olson, Malini Parthasarathy, Hal Pashler, David Peterzell, Jack Pettigrew, Jaime Pineda, Dan Plummer, Alladi Prabhakar, David Presti, N. Ram and N. Ravi (editors of
Thanks to Elizabeth Seckel and Petra Ostermuencher for their help.
I also thank Diane, Mani, and Jaya, who are an endless source of delight and inspiration. The
Julia Kindy Langley kindled my passion for the science of art.
Last but not least, I am grateful to the National Institutes of Health for funding much of the research reported in the book, and to private donors and patrons: Abe Pollin, Herb Lurie, Dick Geckler, and Charlie Robins.
THE TELL-TALE BRAIN
INTRODUCTION
No Mere Ape
