Sherrington's Loom: An Introduction to the Science Format: Hardcover

How does the brain create consciousness? How is it that we have a sense of self; a self that can identify thousands of people, places, objects, words, and musical melodies? While the ultimate challenge--that of transforming electrical impulses in nerve cells into sensations, thoughts, and actions--remains a mystery, there is a great deal that is now known about the way the brain functions. Further, that knowledge is increasing through the use of ever more powerful experimental methods. Sherrington's Loom brings the key information together by blending crucial historical discoveries with more recent findings in the laboratory and neurological clinic. This book is a "must-have" for anyone interested in the history of medicine and science, and who is eager for insights as to how the conscious brain may work.

Alan McComas was born in Western Australia and educated in Britain, gaining degrees in physiology, medicine, and surgery at Durham University. Following postdoctoral studies at University College London and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, he established a muscle and nerve research laboratory at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 1971 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Head of Neurology at McMaster University in Canada, where he has remained ever since. One of the first to record from single units in the human thalamus, Alan McComas has continued an active interest in brain neurophysiology, including the neural basis of migraine. Among other pioneering achievements he is known for having developed electrophysiological methods for estimating the numbers and types of motor nerve cell in the live human spinal cord and brain stem. The author of the 2014 award-winning Galvani's Spark: The Story of the Nerve Impulse (OUP, 2011), Alan McComas has published some 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers and other articles.