V. S. Ramachandran

V. S. Ramachandran is an Indian-American neuroscientist renowned for his ingenious, low-tech experiments and his gift for illuminating the brain through its strangest cases, author of Phantoms in the Brain and The Tell-Tale Brain.

V. S. Ramachandran is director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and a distinguished professor in the psychology department and neurosciences program at the University of California, San Diego. He is celebrated for his creative, often strikingly simple experiments — most famously the “mirror box” used to relieve phantom-limb pain.

His popular books, including Phantoms in the Brain and The Tell-Tale Brain (2011), use unusual neurological cases — phantom limbs, synesthesia, strange delusions — to illuminate how the normal brain produces language, art, empathy, and self-awareness. Engaging, witty, and intellectually ambitious, his writing has made cutting-edge neuroscience accessible to millions.

Often called “the Marco Polo of neuroscience,” Ramachandran is admired for his ingenuity and his willingness to tackle the deepest questions of mind and consciousness, even as some of his bolder theories remain debated.