Part 1 - V.S. Ramachandran at Beyond Belief 2.0

[MartenThuren]

He could(should?) be the new Rammstein vocalist!

[mrramsook]

He must have an iq of 160 genius

[TheDaikashido]

I don't get the thing about the triangle, how could anyone not see it?

[mightbewrong1]

@TheDaikashido In the original experiment, all the digits were grey, so for a non-synaesthete, it's quite hard to notice all the 2s. He coloured in the 2s on the lecture slide to make it easy to see the triangle - to a synaesthete, the colours of the 2s would cause the triangle to 'pop out' even when all the digits are grey. He did show the original, all-grey display for a little bit before he coloured the 2s in.

Alternatively, maybe you have synaesthesia?

[Stonnin]

genius, fucking genius

[smrkmusicgroup]

did anyone else notice that at one point he stops rolling his R's so heavily as usual?

[Silvia1826]

Boy doesn't the audience in the video look interested. Lol. That guy in the red shirt looks downright paranoid at 2:58. XD Seriously those, this is fascinating to me. :)

[bttrflykiss7701]

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRoll those r's. :-)

[Ashitakaandsan]

6x more common in artistic types...

[kushpolak]

ill take one of those empty seats....

[lalithtissera]

Human nature of categorizing and categorical thinking, guy is talking science, idiots stress his accent.

focus on accent and stressed R" s.

[korn47382]

This is great, and very intresting.

[somnolent49]

I was actually impressed at how small an accent he has.

[sciencism]

this guy is a genius. Hes in one of the toughest field of science. No one really wanna get in to this Neuroscience field or watever...Probing the rats ain't the fun job. It requires more than patience but also compassion! Truly salute!

[dirtyhyde8]

Ramachandran's "R" s are soo strong. Like RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRReally. I mean it feels like someone hammering you on the head. But we listen since we like to be educated. Sorry Mr. Ramachandran I had to say that.

[cipanlaknat]

@dirtyhyde8 how is that important? but i can see the funny side of it haha

[dirtyhyde8]

Its funny because I can relate to him. I am from Pakistan which is his neighbor country, and we have the same problem with pronunciation of certain letters like "R"s and "T"s.

[valhala56]

Dude it's Dr. Ramahandran not Mr. Ramachandran.

[killintymm]

it is Dr Ramachandran not Dr Ramahandran what do you mean ? its everywhere the spelling

[Braxmetal]

he'll say ramachandran outloud man.

[valhala56]

LOL, I bet that is one of the Neurological tests the good Dr asks of his pt's. Say my name out loud.

[Braxmetal]

hahaha, yeah.

[gabrielleadams]

Why on earth would someone be ashamed to admit synesthesia? Guess my inner freak's showing.

[vedaBang]

he sounds somehow lie Obama doesnt he??

[spensword]

I have several types of synestheshia and I'm not at all ashamed to admit it. This is a very interesting video btw.

[OriginalSin42K]

i have once truely expierienced synethesia during a legal drug trip (yes LEGAL XD) and i could taste music, was truely odd and amazing

[Spetsop]

Taste music? Whoa... what were you listening and how did it taste like? That sounds super interesting! What drug was it :P... if you don't mind sharing.

I'm in med school, and I'm super interested in this stuff, so that's why I'm asking :)

[OriginalSin42K]

it was a herb called "Salvia divinorum" (absolutely mind blowing) i have had a friend who also "tasted music" while smoking the same drug i have to say it was one of the most amazing expieriences of my life! I could not possibly have imagined synethsia and how "real" it was. i cannot recall the exact tastes but i remember very clearly thinking how odd it was to sense music that way!

[LennyBound]

Salvia... *shudders*

[hymnofashes]

@OriginalSin42K Salvia fucks you up proper. It's scary.

[scurry1965]

Great find!

[JonahTorn]

Do the numbers pop out in people who have a more kinesthetic reactions to numbers that visual, even seeing them as male or female and with personalities.

[scurry1965]

yes, actually that is a common one.

[JonahTorn]

I did not mean to post

"Do the numbers pop out in people"

That sounds a little strange, but I am glad to know at that at least it is common, (HA HA).

I should have used a question mark in my last post as well.

[scurry1965]

I knew what you meant.

[JonahTorn]

I felt like making fun of myself when I saw mistake.

[scurry1965]

I do that constantly. I have felt moved to correct or clarify on more than one occasion. It is the attention to details. It is a sign of mindfulness. A desire to destroy ambiguity. At least that is how i experience self auditing.

[luckycharms8282]

Its great how he never dismisses anything by saying its crazy. He finds patterns and connects it to a part of the brain.

[MononofuBlood]

While it's obvious that Prof. Ramachandran was being facetious, his debunking of the "memory theory" doesn't add up. No two synesthetes are alike, so even if they passed down the same magnets through all the generations, they wouldn't end up seeing the same colors on the same numbers; that also throws that "memory theory" out the window.

[MononofuBlood]

Not to say he's wrong to reject it, just that his joke was off (haha). Thanks (again) for uploading the talk, LennyBound.

[JonahTorn]

I have found videos that deal with seeing colors on numbers, colors for letters, colors for taste and colors for sound for synesthesia, but not fir sight and touch or hearing and touch. That sounds closer to how When I see a person who is on my left I feel them there and it is annoying. I also have tics & I am very responsive to sigh & sounds as signals to tic so I am not sure if everything is related to tics or if there is a little synesthesia going on.

How can I sort this out?

[LennyBound]

I don't know enough about synesthesia to really comment.

Perhaps as brain-science progresses we'll be able to answer more questions concerning it.

But only time will tell.

[HecticRat]

@JonahTorn I'm not sure if this'll help at all but you could try calling the number at the end of this video: /watch?v=mzVwf26igJE&feature=r­elated

[theinternetscholar]

Ramachandran is one of the greatest scientific speakers . . . he really gets his points across and he's interesting while doing it

[mrpossibilities]

He reminds me a bit of mr Daniel Dennett in that both are brilliant and have a great empathy when they speak of complicated phenomena.

[boblozz]

This guy could talk for an hour about cardboard and i would still be captivated!

[soundoflight]

lol That is so funny and I agree!

[scubasteve3005]

i really enjoyed this. i took a psychobiology course a little while ago and learned briefly about what synesthesia was. i enjoyed getting an in depth explanation. i also enjoyed how pretentious everyone in the audience looked during the lecture haha

[papasitoman]

Does he have a Scottish accent?

This guy is always entertaing. People should check out his talk at TEDTALKS as well.

[statickk14]

He has a South Indian accent. I think these folks should open the 'Beyond Belief' to public. I would attend for sure.