The Story of Neuroscience

‘How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm

imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question

its own place in the cosmos?’

V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist, 2011



How we think, feel, move, remember, imagine, and experience the outside world and our own bodies is the domain of neuroscience. For millennia, the workings of the brain and nerves could be approached only through superstition and conjecture. Then, in the 19th century, neuroscience began to cast light on this most complex of our bodily systems. This book traces the development of neuroscience, from ancient beliefs to the technologies of the present day.


Topics include:

• the interaction of mind, soul, and body

• the localization of functions within the brain

• the workings of the nervous system

• the motor system and how we move

• the sensory system and how we construct perception

• mental illness, brain damage, and lessons from dysfunction and disease

• mental activity, including learning, memory, identity, and imagination