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aybala50's picture

tricking the brain

Submitted by aybala50 on Sun, 03/22/2009 - 1:47pm.

After our last class the thing that stuck with me is the idea of tricking the brain. When we were talking about phantom limbs, I started thinking about the way Dr. Ramachandran treat this problem. He would use a mirror box so that the patients could move the phantom limb. (http://endthepainproject.org/images/mirrorbox2.jpg) As seen in this picture the person can "see" the non existent limb and the brain receives this signal and is convinced that the limb exists. Then the person moves this limb by moving the actual arm. Moving the limb relaxes it and the pain is treated this way. 

After this I started thinking about the placebo effect. Though the placebo effect is not always existent, it is a true phenomenon. 

Both Dr. Ramachandran's treatment for phantom limbs and the placebo effect lead me to question Emily Dickinson's poem. If the brain is what creates everything and controls everything, then how is it that it can be tricked?  

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