Discoveries in the Human Brain: Neuroscience Prehistory, Brain Structure, and Function - Hardcover

Marshall, Louise H.; Magoun, Horace W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0896034356 ISBN 13: 9780896034358

Publisher: Humana, 1997

Synopsis

170u can climb back up a stream of radiance to the sky, and back through history up the stream of time. 1 -Robert Frost topics that he judged to be important in brain his­ From the last years of the second millennium, tory leading into the end of the century, and was we can look back on antecedent events in neuro­ undertaken in response to the enthusiasm gener­ science with amazement that so much of modern ated by exhibition at several national and interna­ biomedical science was anticipated, or even said or done, in an earlier time. That surprise can be tional meetings of a series oflarge posters for which matched by appreciation for what the pioneer Magoun wrote a 27-page brochure. The posters investigators, with no inkling that they were creat­ were viewed by a multitude of young neuroscien­ ing a discipline, contributed to its emergence as a tists who wanted more, as well as by mature inves­ productive force in human progress. In today's tigators who were warmly pleased to see familiar names and faces from the past. The acclaim was reductionist atmosphere, in which research at the molecular level is producing breathtaking new accompanied by a veritable deluge of requests for knowledge throughout biology, the student may an illustrated, expanded publication.

About this title

From the Back Cover

In Discoveries in the Human Brain Louise Marshall and Horace Magoun capture the grand sweep of human brain history leading to the emergence of modern neuroscience as a multidisciplinary field incorporating anatomical, behavioral, cellular, and medical knowledge. The book chronicles-from the time of early humans to the 1980s-the many significant people and events that gradually produced today's understanding of brain anatomy and physiology. Enlightening and engrossing throughout, Dr. Marshall's survey traces this unfolding story from the first findings of gross neuroanatomy in the ancient world to today's functional analysis of the electrophysiology of nerve impulses; from early discoveries of the existence and operations the central nervous system to, finally, the developments in brain chemistry and pharmacology that have now brought us to neural networks and brain modeling. Throughout there are numerous historic and rare plates, a rich tapestry of quotations from primary sources, and concise summaries of the pathbreaking research that shaped and determined modern neuroscience.

Discoveries in the Human Brain illuminates for neuroscientists, neurologists, historians of medicine and science, as well as the educated reader all the major landmarks in the development of neuroscience and its various subdisciplines, ranging from anatomy, chemistry, and physiology, to biomathematics, biophysics, psychobiology, and physiological psychology. It will prove indispensable reading for everyone wanting to understand the evolution of neuroscience and the broad interdisciplinary foundation on which our knowledge of mind-brain relations and human consciousness rests.

Reviews

As the decade of the brain draws to a close, it is worthwhile to review some of the progress made in advancing our knowledge of this fascinating and enigmatic structure. Louise Marshall (director of the Neuroscience History Archives at the Brain Research Institute) and Horace Magoun (a noted research neuroscientist who unfortunately died before the completion of this book) have taken on a huge subject, but they have succeeded in rendering it not only comprehensible, in spite of the convoluted twists and blind alleys that constitute the development of neuroscience, but also genuinely interesting. Their presentation allows the story to speak for itself as much as possible. The reader is able to appreciate how, as Thomas Kuhn noted, scientific progress is generated by cycles of concept and counter-concept that successively fit the experimental data better -- the energy generated by differences of opinion serving to drive researchers forward to find ways to support their own ideas and refute those of others.

An attractive feature of this book is due to its origin as a series of historical posters that Magoun exhibited at various international meetings. The book is highly visual, illustrated throughout with pictures that have been well chosen to help convey rapidly and accurately what the various investigators made of what they were seeing. It is also amply illustrated with pictures of the investigators themselves. These serve to break up and individualize the panoply of views presented. The book is peppered with quotations from the great figures in the history of neuroscience, and the authors have leaned heavily (as they freely admit) on the bible: Clarke and O'Malley's History of the Brain and Spinal Cord (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968). The quotations have been well chosen to demonstrate just how carefully the investigators, perhaps mindful of the many controversies that dog their subject, interpreted their findings. One of the quotations, from Santiago Ramon y Cajal, is a warning to all current and budding neuroscientists: "The supreme dignity which surrounds the brain and the awesome complexity of its workings presuppose the existence of an extremely complicated warp, sure to ensnare those who imagine that nature unfolds multifarious exalted phenomena according to schematic formulae."

The topics covered represent a fair survey of our knowledge until the beginning of the 1970s, the stated end point of the authors. The book starts with some general issues, such as theories of phylogeny and ontogeny, and then addresses the interpretation of the cerebral structures, with the history of interpretations for each structure treated separately, culminating in syntheses of theories to explain three major integrative systems: the limbic system and memory, corticothalamic connections and cybernetics, and the brain-stem reticular formation and arousal. Although the book ends at a point where the field accelerates and diversifies rapidly, it provides a sound basis for surveying the newer developments. One stated aim of the authors is to demonstrate how collaborations between different disciplines (such as that between experimental psychology and neuroanatomy) have often led to breakthroughs in science. The strengths and weaknesses of such approaches (the former due to the extra insights gained, and the latter to the use of unjustifiable assumptions) are noted throughout, and they prove instructive.

This book is certainly sufficiently clear and well illustrated to be of interest to general clinicians as well as workers in neuroscience or the cognitive sciences. It is also refreshingly free of jargon. I highly recommend the book both as an introduction to the history of neuroscience and as a secondary source, since it includes comprehensive references. The book's quality and reasonable price (thanks to a charitable grant) should thus attract many and varied readers.

Reviewed by David Maudgil, M.R.C.P.
Copyright © 1998 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Edition details

• Publisher: Humana
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0896034356
• ISBN 13: 9780896034358
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 334