The Woman Who Died Of Slaughter Analysis
Analysis of Ramachandran
Mary P. Wright
University of Evansville
Author Note:
This paper was prepared for Honors psychology 101,
Taught by Doctor. Lakey
Who Is Ramachandran?
Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran is neuroscientist who has made very large contributions to the psychology and neuroscience field. Ramachandran was lucky enough to have wonderfully unique patients to work with to help him understand the way the brain works. Ramachandran didn’t use many new technologies but still he contributed new understanding even through his observation and simple experiments. Ramachandran is a testimate that no matter how strange and bizarre a person’s case, there is a neurological explanation.
Although Dr. …show more content…
If one part of the brain is hurt, the rest can be affected, like dominoes. Ramachandran believes the limbic system is where laughter initiates, to be exact; the hypothalamus, the mammillary bodies, and cingulate gyrus in the limbic system. The limbic participates in producing many emotions. In the book, Phantoms in the Brain, the chapter titled “The Woman Who Died of Laughter”, Ramachandran gives a story about a man named Willy. Willy’s mother died of unknown causes, and the chapter opens with Willy attending his mother 's funeral. In a situation like this, people generally morn, miss their parent and shed tears. But no, not Willy, he begins to laugh, and once started he cannot stop, so he laughs hysterically. His family is appalled and confused, so they take him to the doctor. The doctor finds nothing wrong but Willy continues to laugh so they keep him on as an patient. Two days later a staff member found Willy unconscious from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Willy died before he ever knew he’d stopped laughing. Willy had a brain aneurysm that had crushed his hypothalamus, mammillary, other bodies, and structures of the brain. The I-function participates in these situations by sending signals back and forth the frontal lobe, and again provides a screen in between reality that the laughter is inappropriate and the I-function is saying
Analysis of Ramachandran
Mary P. Wright
University of Evansville
Author Note:
This paper was prepared for Honors psychology 101,
Taught by Doctor. Lakey
Who Is Ramachandran?
Vilayanur Subramanian Ramachandran is neuroscientist who has made very large contributions to the psychology and neuroscience field. Ramachandran was lucky enough to have wonderfully unique patients to work with to help him understand the way the brain works. Ramachandran didn’t use many new technologies but still he contributed new understanding even through his observation and simple experiments. Ramachandran is a testimate that no matter how strange and bizarre a person’s case, there is a neurological explanation.
Although Dr. …show more content…
If one part of the brain is hurt, the rest can be affected, like dominoes. Ramachandran believes the limbic system is where laughter initiates, to be exact; the hypothalamus, the mammillary bodies, and cingulate gyrus in the limbic system. The limbic participates in producing many emotions. In the book, Phantoms in the Brain, the chapter titled “The Woman Who Died of Laughter”, Ramachandran gives a story about a man named Willy. Willy’s mother died of unknown causes, and the chapter opens with Willy attending his mother 's funeral. In a situation like this, people generally morn, miss their parent and shed tears. But no, not Willy, he begins to laugh, and once started he cannot stop, so he laughs hysterically. His family is appalled and confused, so they take him to the doctor. The doctor finds nothing wrong but Willy continues to laugh so they keep him on as an patient. Two days later a staff member found Willy unconscious from a subarachnoid hemorrhage. Willy died before he ever knew he’d stopped laughing. Willy had a brain aneurysm that had crushed his hypothalamus, mammillary, other bodies, and structures of the brain. The I-function participates in these situations by sending signals back and forth the frontal lobe, and again provides a screen in between reality that the laughter is inappropriate and the I-function is saying