This fab TED talk by Vilayanur Ramachandran explores how brain damage helps us to study the connection between the internal structures and corresponding functions of the mind. He is the director of the Center for Brain and Cognition at the University of California, San Diego, and an adjunct professor at the Salk Institute who has written a number of books.

I found his discussion of learned paralysis in phantom limbs to be of great interest, as was his contention that we all have ‘cross modal synaesthetic‘ abilities.

http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/loader.swf

via Aide-mémoire