Speaking of homuncularity there is a nice profile of V. S. Ramachandran in the latest issue of The New Yorker (sorry it’s by subscription only). It’s a far superior piece than the one done on the Churchlands a while back. Beyond the areas that have made V.S. so well-known (synesthesia, phantom limb syndrome), several interesting topics (at least for me) that are covered include:
1. I had no idea that V. S. worked with (the very amusing) Richard Gregory
2. Penfield homunculus related to phantom limb syndrome
3. Picking up the Parma discoveries of mirror neurons in monkeys and seeing if he could, through non-evasive techniques, find them in humans.
In case you haven’t seen V.S in action, here is a video of him I posted some time back.
manwithoutqualities 