Editorial: History of Neuroscience (original) (raw)
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Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2012
This compilation of abstracts contains the proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Meeting of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences that was jointly orga- nized with Cheiron – the International Society for the History of the Behavioral and Social Sciences. The meeting was held at the University of Calgary, Rozsa Centre (June 16–19, 2011) and followed by an after-conference retreat with workshops at the Banff Centre for the Arts (June 19–23, 2011). This volume of Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (JHN) — due to length restrictions — is able to publish only the ISHN-related abstracts as found on the 2011 conference program. The criteria used in the selection were ISHN membership, keynote lecture invitation that came from ISHN or in conjunction with Cheiron, lecture, panel, and work- shop contributions solicited by ISHN members on the program committee, or abstracts sent to the ISHN review committee. The abstracts from the student poster presentations at the History of Neuroscience Student Poster Workshop in Banff are not included in this compilation. For the first time, ISHN organized a conference with our sister society, Cheiron – The International Society for the History of the Behavioral & Social Sciences in the forty-third year of their meeting history. In fact, it was a great honor and a real delight to have been the ISHN President during the planning phase of this conference. In building upon per- sonal friendships, including those who have double memberships in both of the societies, the joint program committee as well as the local program committee were successful in developing an exciting, intellectual, and highly stimulating program. All of the paper and poster sessions, mutual discussion panels, and fascinating keynote and featured lectures were integrated so superbly that now it seems regrettable that they are being torn apart for the sake of publishing only the ISHN-related abstracts. The program committee responsible for the meeting organization consisted of Dr. Fred Weizmann (York University, Toronto, Ontario) for the Cheiron side and Dr. Frank W. Stahnisch (The University of Calgary [UofC], Calgary, Alberta) for the ISHN side as Co- Chairs; and the local organizing committee comprised of Dr. Henderikus J. Stam (History of Psychology, UofC) and Dr. Andrew G. M. Bulloch (History of Neuroscience Interest Group, UofC). The review committee responsible for the conference proceedings were scholars from ISHN: Drs. Stanley Finger (St. Louis, USA), Paul Foley (Sydney, Australia), Marjorie Lorch (London, United Kingdom), Malcolm Macmillan (Melbourne, Australia), and Harry Whitaker (Marquette, USA); and from Cheiron: Drs. Ingrid Farreras (Frederick, USA), Michael John Pettit (Toronto, Canada), Larry Stern (Plano, USA), and Jerry Sullivan (Plano, USA). The two Co-Chairs have been very grateful for their advice during the plan- ning and organization phase of the meeting, while also the help and assistance of Beth Cusitar and Charity Derksen (both UofC) should be greatly acknowledged, as well as that of half a dozen of summer students and many faculty colleagues. The meeting was financially supported from conference grants by various Canadian and international institutions and agencies, such as the University of Calgary, the Hotchkiss Brain Institute, the Calgary Institute for Population and Public Health, Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions, the Alberta Medical Foundation, The Calgary Institute for the Humanities; the Journal Theory and Psychology, the Society for Neuroscience; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Calgary History of Medicine and Health Care Program, as well as both societies: ISHN and Cheiron. The organizers sin- cerely and wholeheartedly wish to thank all those who have made this intriguing meeting possible and are most grateful for their very important help and support.
A History of the Brain tells the full story of neuroscience, from antiquity to the present day. It describes how we have come to understand the biological nature of the brain, beginning in prehistoric times, and the progress to the twentieth century with the development of modern neuroscience. This is the first time a history of the brain has been written in a narrative way, emphasising how our understanding of the brain and nervous system has developed over time, with the development of a number of disciplines including anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, psychology and neurosurgery. The book covers: • beliefs about the brain in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome • the Medieval period, Renaissance and Enlightenment • the 19th century • the most important advances in the 21st century and future directions in neuroscience. The discoveries leading to the development of modern neuroscience have given rise to one of the most exciting and fascinating stories in the whole of science. Written for readers with no prior knowledge of the brain or history, the book will delight students, and will also be of great interest to researchers and lecturers with an interest in understanding how we have arrived at our present knowledge of the brain. Andrew P. Wickens is Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Central Lancashire, UK. His main area of expertise is in biological psychology and neuroscience.
The first 25 years of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 2016
The first issue of the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences (JHN) came off the press25 years ago, in January 1992. It had a single editor, the late Frank Clifford Rose (1926–2012), a British neurologist with a great love of history and a superb and well-remembered talent for organizing meetings and bringing scholars together and for thinking big.Published by Smith-Gordon in London, the journal had a bright red cover and, as put by Frank Rose in his opening editorial, it was intended to be“the forum for history of neurosciences,” a publication that would cover“all material of interest in this particular field”(Rose,1992, p. 2). In reality, the journal began by publishing most heavily on the history of neurology, that is, Rose’s academic specialty. Its first issue had articles on the history of the neurological examination, on German aphasiologist Carl Wernicke (1848–1905; Ljungberg,1992) and Russian brain psychiatrist Aleksei Iakovlevich Kozhevnikov (1836–1902; Freemon,1992), on French clinical neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825–1893), and on the historical development of pathologies, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neurofibromatosis. Articles from other facets on the basic (e.g., neuroanatomy, neurophysiology) and applied neurosciences (e.g., neurosurgery, neuropsychology) grew significantly after JHN’s first year.
Chapter 11: on the use of animal experimentation in the history of neurology
Handbook of clinical neurology, 2010
It is generally assumed that animals always had a place in neurology and were seen to display similar maladies to those afflicting mankind. They were indeed objects of intensive study and close observation in various fields of medicine, so the topic of animal experimentation itself has become a widely discussed subject in recent historiographical literature (comprehensive studies are: Paton, 1984; Hardegg and Preiser, 1986; Guerrini, 2003). Close historical analysis of experimentation with animals, however, cannot support the belief that they had always been seen as “lab animals,” a notion so current in modem-day scientific jargon (e.g., Held, 1980, p. 214). Although this chapter gives an overview on the use of wild and laboratory animals in the history of neurology, it is far from conclusive and can only cover some landmark experiments. In so doing, it pays particular attention to the transfer of knowledge derived from animal experimentation to human physiology and clinical phenomena in neurology. In addition, various social backgrounds of the Western research endeavor in biomedicine (see Cunningham and Williams, 1992, p. 3), such as the influence of conflicting religious and cultural beliefs held by neuroscientists or the public, will be touched upon, to illustrate the complex efforts of different historical contexts (cf., Rheinberger and Hagner, 1993, p. 1). In tracing the history of the martyrs of neuroscience in different historical episodes and localities, only some instances of the history of animal experimentation can be covered, and the interested reader, who wants to learn more about the broader cultural contexts of this important issue in the generation of neurological knowledge, will be referred to more comprehensive descriptions in the historiographical literature (important accounts can be found in Brazier, 1988; Finger, 2000; Hagner, 2000).
This course examines the expansion and proliferation of the neurosciences from the early modern period to the present. We will investigate the recent claim that we are living in the midst of a "neuro-revolution" with vast social, political, and economic consequences around the globe. Yet at the same time, we will look to the past for similar moments of transition and transformation of the modern sciences abetted by experiments on the nervous system. Students will analyze texts from Descartes to Damasio, paying attention to the rhetorical explanatory power of certain epistemic objects and instruments--samples of brain tissue, synaptic networks, clinical case histories, MRI scans--as well as the institutional power-shifts that sanctioned research practices such as vivisection, phrenology, electrophysiology, and functional imaging. Through our reading of primary sources by philosophers and physicians and secondary sources by historians and sociologists, this course will explore what is at stake in the "neuro-turn," and why it provokes such a mixed reaction of hope and hype, then as well as now.
Review by Katja Guenther in Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives, 2014
"[Finkelstein] shows convincingly why writing a biography of du Bois-Reymond is a worthwhile undertaking, not only by exploring the potentials of the biography genre but also due to the immense richness of his choice of subject: Few scientists had such extensive academic connections (mentors, colleagues, and students), held such a range of influential academic offices, led such a full and exemplarily bourgeois private life, lived in so many different European countries and commented so publicly on such a range of different issues, including science, politics, literature and art, and philosophy. Du Bois-Reymond had it all, and, for this reason, his life offers an unparalleled window into the cultural, scientific, and political life of nineteenth-century Europe."
Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience
Brain, Mind and Medicine: Essays in Eighteenth-Century Neuroscience, 2007
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