'It's All Done With Mirrors': V.S. Ramachandran and the Material Culture of Phantom Limb Research.
This article examines the material culture of neuroscientist Vilayanur S. Ramachandran's research into phantom limbs. In the 1990s Ramachandran used a 'mirror box' to 'resurrect' phantom limbs and thus to treat the pain that often accompanied them. The experimental success of his mirror therapy led Ramachandran to see mirrors as a useful model of brain function, a tendency that explains his attraction to work on 'mirror neurons'. I argue that Ramachandran's fascination with and repeated appeal to the mirror can be explained by the way it allowed him to confront a perennial problem in the mind and brain sciences, that of the relationship between a supposedly immaterial mind and a material brain. By producing what Ramachandran called a 'virtual reality', relating in varied and complex ways to the material world, the mirror reproduced a form of psycho-physical parallelism and dualistic ontology, while conforming to the materialist norms of neuroscience today.
Katja
K
Guenther
D000674:Amputees / Q000266:history* / Q000523:psychology; D056228:Feedback, Sensory; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D059167:Mirror Neurons; D009488:Neurosciences; D010591:Phantom Limb / Q000266:history* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States; D063367:Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Material culture; Mirrors; Neuroscience; Phantom limb pain; Sigmund Freud; Virtual reality