The human brain is a complex organ that controls every function of our bodies, our rationality and our behavior. As a result, any failure or change in the brain generates specific symptoms that can be mistaken as craziness even when these mind malfunctions are originated by a neurological condition despite psychological problems.
Voice hallucinations, phantom limbs, mistaking humans for objects, verbal confusion and short-term amnesia, among other pathologies, are considered as neurological failures in specific brain areas. According to the experience of Dr.Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, a neurologist expert in optics and an amateur paleontologist, most of the voice hallucination cases related to schizophrenia are linked to vocal cord activity. Each time that a human being is reading or thinking silently, the vocal cords have slight movements and vibrations. These vibrations can be heard by the brain, and the brain, in rare cases, transforms these vibrations into internal voices. For this reason some patients think that they have voices inside of their heads, which is a typical schizophrenic symptom. In this case, the delicate machinery of the human brain is malfunctioning, originating this neuronal confusion.
However, Dr Oliver Sacks, another famous neurologist, considers that voice hallucinations are a psychological problem instead of neurological damage as Dr. Ramachandran maintains. Dr. Sacks establishes that voice hallucinations are a clear symptom of schizophrenia. On the contrary, a patient who hears nonexistent music (music hallucination) is suffering neurological damage. That is, Dr. Sacks’ theory establishes a difference between voice and music hallucinations.
Regarding the theory of music hallucination as a neurological damage, Dr Sacks consider that patients who hear a nonexistent music have problems in their neurological processes related to memory functions. In these cases, the patient does not have a musical delusion because the memory of the music that he heard is real, the patient has only neuronal damage that triggers the memory of a specific tune without external stimulus, and this damage repeats this tune inside of the brain over and over.
Dr. Sacks considers patients who hear voices inside their heads as psychiatric cases. These patients have an alteration of reality that originates these kinds of delusions. In a schizophrenic mind these delusions have independent life and are not conditioned by neurological damage .Another type of neurological damage is the phantom limb, an illness called scientifically as apotemnophilia. A person who suffers an amputation can show symptoms of phantom limb syndrome. The main characteristic of this syndrome is that the patient feels the amputated limb as a healthy limb. As a result, this phantom limb usually suffers real pain. People who have this condition receive strong pain killers or psychological treatment because of their "delusions". However, Dr. Ramachandran, argues that the phantom limb syndrome is a serious neurological condition and not a delusional behavior coming from crazy minds.
Dr. Ramachandran discovered that the human brain can be mapped. Through the brain map he identified a correlation between body parts and brain areas. During this experiment, Dr. Ramachandran established that the brain area correspondent to the amputated limb went empty and it was "invaded" by other healthy areas that control other body parts that had not been amputated, (for example other limb or specific facial areas). Consequently, any sensation that arises in the part of the body that corresponds to the amputated limb’s brain area it would be reflected in the amputated limb.
One of the most common pains in amputated limbs is cramps. Patients feel that their phantom limb is constantly in an uncomfortable position which generates these cramps. Then, the pain caused by the cramp cannot be relieved by the suppression of the uncomfortable position because the limb does not exist.
For these situations, Dr. Ramachandran creates a very simple treatment which tries to cure the pain of phantom limbs. This treatment is based on the use of mirrors which reset the brain. Mirrors are located in a specific position and they create an illusion through the reproduction of the other non- amputated limb. Through this technique, in the patient’s mind, an amputated limb is replaced by a healthy limb. As a result, the amputated limb’s brain area receives information which says that the amputated limb exists and the patient can move it. Through this technique, Dr Ramachandran can cure the painful cramps in phantom limbs by deceiving the brain and restarting it through a neurological reorganization.
Pathologies such as short-term amnesia and language distortions are clearly neurological conditions. Short-term amnesia is created by a traumatic event that generates a breakdown in specific memory neurons. One of the patients studied by Dr. Oliver Sacks was a veteran who lost short-term memory because of neuron damage which was caused during World War II. Despite the fact that the veteran was fifty years old, in his memory he was a young man of eighteen years old, the age when he joined the army and went to the War. The main symptom of this type of amnesia is short-term memory. These patients remember everything before the incident where they lost their memory but they do not remember immediate things such as conversations, news, faces of people that they met after the incident, etc. As a result, these patients are stuck in one moment lost in far away on time.
Finally, one of the most serious conditions that show the link between neurons and behaviors is aphasia. Aphasia is the lack of capacity to name objects. This condition preserves the object concept but erases the correct word to name it. Moreover, aphasic patients do not lose any intellectual capacity; they only cannot call things by the correct word because their brain cannot identify words that can contain the concept of the object. These patients are literally speechless.
In conclusion, the human brain is a great universe and its study must not to be limited to psychological conditions. Furthermore, the neurological field offers astonishing discoveries and neurological science may contain the key to curing painful and hopeless illness such as Alzheimer's and autism.
Voice hallucinations, phantom limbs, mistaking humans for objects, verbal confusion and short-term amnesia, among other pathologies, are considered as neurological failures in specific brain areas. According to the experience of Dr.Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, a neurologist expert in optics and an amateur paleontologist, most of the voice hallucination cases related to schizophrenia are linked to vocal cord activity. Each time that a human being is reading or thinking silently, the vocal cords have slight movements and vibrations. These vibrations can be heard by the brain, and the brain, in rare cases, transforms these vibrations into internal voices. For this reason some patients think that they have voices inside of their heads, which is a typical schizophrenic symptom. In this case, the delicate machinery of the human brain is malfunctioning, originating this neuronal confusion.
However, Dr Oliver Sacks, another famous neurologist, considers that voice hallucinations are a psychological problem instead of neurological damage as Dr. Ramachandran maintains. Dr. Sacks establishes that voice hallucinations are a clear symptom of schizophrenia. On the contrary, a patient who hears nonexistent music (music hallucination) is suffering neurological damage. That is, Dr. Sacks’ theory establishes a difference between voice and music hallucinations.
Regarding the theory of music hallucination as a neurological damage, Dr Sacks consider that patients who hear a nonexistent music have problems in their neurological processes related to memory functions. In these cases, the patient does not have a musical delusion because the memory of the music that he heard is real, the patient has only neuronal damage that triggers the memory of a specific tune without external stimulus, and this damage repeats this tune inside of the brain over and over.
Dr. Sacks considers patients who hear voices inside their heads as psychiatric cases. These patients have an alteration of reality that originates these kinds of delusions. In a schizophrenic mind these delusions have independent life and are not conditioned by neurological damage .Another type of neurological damage is the phantom limb, an illness called scientifically as apotemnophilia. A person who suffers an amputation can show symptoms of phantom limb syndrome. The main characteristic of this syndrome is that the patient feels the amputated limb as a healthy limb. As a result, this phantom limb usually suffers real pain. People who have this condition receive strong pain killers or psychological treatment because of their "delusions". However, Dr. Ramachandran, argues that the phantom limb syndrome is a serious neurological condition and not a delusional behavior coming from crazy minds.
Dr. Ramachandran discovered that the human brain can be mapped. Through the brain map he identified a correlation between body parts and brain areas. During this experiment, Dr. Ramachandran established that the brain area correspondent to the amputated limb went empty and it was "invaded" by other healthy areas that control other body parts that had not been amputated, (for example other limb or specific facial areas). Consequently, any sensation that arises in the part of the body that corresponds to the amputated limb’s brain area it would be reflected in the amputated limb.
One of the most common pains in amputated limbs is cramps. Patients feel that their phantom limb is constantly in an uncomfortable position which generates these cramps. Then, the pain caused by the cramp cannot be relieved by the suppression of the uncomfortable position because the limb does not exist.
For these situations, Dr. Ramachandran creates a very simple treatment which tries to cure the pain of phantom limbs. This treatment is based on the use of mirrors which reset the brain. Mirrors are located in a specific position and they create an illusion through the reproduction of the other non- amputated limb. Through this technique, in the patient’s mind, an amputated limb is replaced by a healthy limb. As a result, the amputated limb’s brain area receives information which says that the amputated limb exists and the patient can move it. Through this technique, Dr Ramachandran can cure the painful cramps in phantom limbs by deceiving the brain and restarting it through a neurological reorganization.
Pathologies such as short-term amnesia and language distortions are clearly neurological conditions. Short-term amnesia is created by a traumatic event that generates a breakdown in specific memory neurons. One of the patients studied by Dr. Oliver Sacks was a veteran who lost short-term memory because of neuron damage which was caused during World War II. Despite the fact that the veteran was fifty years old, in his memory he was a young man of eighteen years old, the age when he joined the army and went to the War. The main symptom of this type of amnesia is short-term memory. These patients remember everything before the incident where they lost their memory but they do not remember immediate things such as conversations, news, faces of people that they met after the incident, etc. As a result, these patients are stuck in one moment lost in far away on time.
Finally, one of the most serious conditions that show the link between neurons and behaviors is aphasia. Aphasia is the lack of capacity to name objects. This condition preserves the object concept but erases the correct word to name it. Moreover, aphasic patients do not lose any intellectual capacity; they only cannot call things by the correct word because their brain cannot identify words that can contain the concept of the object. These patients are literally speechless.
In conclusion, the human brain is a great universe and its study must not to be limited to psychological conditions. Furthermore, the neurological field offers astonishing discoveries and neurological science may contain the key to curing painful and hopeless illness such as Alzheimer's and autism.
Well. there you go. It won't be easy, but at least you are on the road already. Never stop walking and you may get to the unintended somewhere.
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