Product Description

Attractively illustrated with over a hundred halftones and drawings, this volume presents a series of vibrant profiles that trace the evolution of our knowledge about the brain. Beginning almost 5000 years ago, with the ancient Egyptian study of "the marrow of the skull," Stanley Finger takes us on a fascinating journey from the classical world of Hippocrates, to the time of Descartes and the era of Broca and Ramon y Cajal, to modern researchers such as Sperry. Here is a truly remarkable cast of characters. We meet Galen, a man of titanic ego and abrasive disposition, whose teachings dominated medicine for a thousand years; Vesalius, a contemporary of Copernicus, who pushed our understanding of human anatomy to new heights; Otto Loewi, pioneer in neurotransmitters, who gave the Nazis his Nobel prize money and fled Austria for England; and Rita Levi-Montalcini, discoverer of nerve growth factor, who in war-torn Italy was forced to do her research in her bedroom. For each individual, Finger examines the philosophy, the tools, the books, and the ideas that brought new insights. Finger also looks at broader topics--how dependent are researchers on the work of others? What makes the time ripe for discovery? And what role does chance or serendipity play? And he includes many fascinating background figures as well, from Leonardo da Vinci and Emanuel Swedenborg to Karl August Weinhold--who claimed to have reanimated a dead cat by filling its skull with silver and zinc--andMary Shelley, whose Frankenstein was inspired by such experiments. Wide ranging in scope, imbued with an infectious spirit of adventure, here are vivid portraits of giants in the field of neuroscience--remarkable individuals who found new ways to think about the machinery of the mind.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #156081 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-16
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.69 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

From Amazon.com
With neuroscience steadily replacing psychology, philosophy, and even religion as a model of self-understanding, it's time we take a look back at the history and meaning of this curious branch of research. Washington University historian Stanley Finger charms and invigorates the reader with Minds Behind the Brain, a look at thousands of years of brain science in the form of biographical sketches. Nineteen great scientists whose brilliant insights, determined work, and resistance to cultural expectations brought this three-pound, lumpy beige ball increasing respect--from the ancient Egyptians discarding it upon death to our own view of it as the seat of consciousness.

Ramon y Cajal, Sperry, Galen, and Descartes are among the researchers Finger chooses to illuminate. Their peers, colleagues, and times are also portrayed vividly; the unavailability of human corpses for dissection until very recently, the still-raging debate on vivisection and animal research, and religious resistance to certain findings have all worked against these men and women. Well-chosen illustrations help humanize these figures, as does the author's careful balance between depictions of research and personal lives. How did Descarte's dog figure in the philosopher's understanding of the soul? Find out in Minds Behind the Brain. --Rob Lightner

From Publishers Weekly
Cognitive science is now all the rage; contradictory, up-to-date hypotheses on how the mind works or doesn't work crowd bookstore shelves. It wasn't always thus. Finger (Origins of Neuroscience) complements the current vogue for brain books with a wide-ranging and detailed set of profiles reaching back to the distant past. Each chapter describes a figure or pair of figures whose ideas and treatments of the brain "dramatically changed the scientific or medical landscape." Finger points first to the Egyptian grand vizier Imhotep (c. 2600 B.C.), probable author of the ancient field medicine manual now called the "Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus"; he moves swiftly to Hippocrates, who proposed the brain as the seat of consciousness. Finger's last chapter covers the neurobiologists Roger Sperry and Rita Levi-Montalcini, who both studied nerve growth in the 1940s and '50s; Sperry later studied patients who had lost their corpus callosum, the bridge connecting the brain's two hemispheres. Changing religious beliefs, animal dissections, advancing research technologies and pure chance, Finger demonstrates, have all played roles in the advance of our knowledge about minds and brains. Although the level of explanation and detail positions this study uncomfortably between academic and popular science writing; it will, however, please readers already interested in the history of science and curious about what generations of scientists past believed, guessed or found out about the brain. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Throughout this 4600-year voyage through the history of neuroscience, Finger (neural sciences, Washington Univ.; Origins of Neuroscience) introduces us to 19 Western thinkers who have made significant discoveries about the physiology and anatomy of the human brain. Beginning with Imhotep, a high priest from Egypt's Third Dynasty, who described head injuries among workers at the pyramids, he traces the progress of neurological discoveries from a basic understanding of brain anatomy to the identification of neurotransmitters. Finger describes the Zeitgeist that made the discoveries possible, alongside the story of each pioneer's life and work. Most of his subjects, he suggests, had an intense drive to learn, a skepticism for the dogma of the times, a sometimes unwarranted optimism, the ability to communicate their findings, devotion for their families, and a love of the humanities. Skillfully written and well researched, this book is appropriate for collections in both academic and public libraries.
-Laurie Bartolini, Illinois State Lib., Springfield
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.