The Man Who Saw His Cat As An Impostor: ‘Capgras syndrome is a strange disorder in which the sufferer becomes convinced that someone close to them has been replaced by an impostor. Yet now, a new and even stranger variant of the syndrome has been reported – “Cat-gras”. This is the name coined by Harvard … Continue reading “Cat-gras Delusion”

Via Boing Boing: ‘In the book The Man Who Wasn’t There, Anil Ananthaswamy explores mysteries of self, including the weirdness of autoscopic phenomena, a kind of hallucination in which you are convinced that you are having an out-of-body experience or face to face with your non-existent twin. From a BBC feature based on one of … Continue reading Psychological disorder causes you to hallucinate your doppelgänger

New York Times article on the Capgras syndrome, a terrifying psychiatric symptom in which patients believe that people — usually those dearest to them — have been replaced by inexact duplicates. Sometimes this extends to their entire community or even the physical objects around them, such as their house or car. Capgras occurs in both … Continue reading When a ‘Duplicate’ Family Moves In

“…first-ever theater festival dedicated to neurological conditions from January 5 through 29, 2006 in NYC. A collection of theater artists from around the country will present work inspired by various neurological conditions, including: Amnesia (Korsakov’s Syndrome) Aphasia Autism Capgras Syndrome Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) Dementia Meniere’s Disease Synesthesia Tourette’s Syndrome”

On Madness, Sleep and Other Twilight Afflictions: “We know considerably more about the functioning of the brain than we did fifty years ago, but so many of its behaviours remain mysterious. How can we make sense of spirit possession or the psychology of alien abduction? Or even the effects of sleep deprivation or of being … Continue reading Fugitive Minds

Thanks to mark wood for pointing me to these: Scientists need no longer be afraid to ask the big questions about what it means to be human with empirical evidence now answering ancient philosophical questions about meaning and existence. Lecture 1: Phantoms in the Brain – Professor Ramachandran shows how phenomena such as Capgras’ delusion … Continue reading Reith Lectures 2003 – The Emerging Mind

The neural correlates of person familiarity. More interesting and powerful findings from functional MRI. Comparing the brain activation patterns of people seeing familiar vs. unfamiliar faces, and listening to familiar vs. unfamiliar voices, reveals the neural correlates of familiarity or recognition — areas of the posterior cingulate gyrus of the cortex, for those who know … Continue reading