A fascinating Brain and where did it all begin?
August 1st 2007 02:04
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Brain
A book review written by Lindsay Haas and Margaret Lewis, Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, in itself gives a glimpse into the fascination humankind experiences when it looks back into the past to find out where it all began.
They quote Winston Churchill as saying `The longer you can look back, the further you can look forward' when addressing the Royal College of Physicians in March 1944.
They prefer to describe it as "knowledge of the present greatly increases an interest in the observations of the past; this book is the ideal destination for those who believe this to be true."
Before modern technology took over from thought and those are my provocative words not theirs, man used mind, patience, observation, scientific method and deduction and discovery.
Starting with the recorded wisdom of recognizing the evolution of the brain in its protective skull and the development of the nervous system, followed by Galen's assertion that structure influences function [ and if I dare to be so bold to say it, the converse is also true that function influences structure ] and Ramon y Cajal revealed the embryonic pyramidal cell with its axon and processes.
Cajal retinal cells
Pyramidal cells
This emphasized the expansion of the cerebral cortex, the seat of intellect.
Plato and Hippocrates revealed the brain's emotional responses rather than the previously thought of "that being a matter for the heart"
Thinking and reasoning then had their rightful place anatomically and functionally.
There followed a dark peiod for neuroscience when Galen's infallability and the dogmatism that prevailed stood in the way of the forward surge of Science.
Galen
Leonardo Da Vinci and Vesalius were influential in moving the trend forward again and the works of many others succeeded in the ultimate discoveries we now know of with respect to cerebral function.
vesalius
Leonardo da Vinci
I hesitate to name those discoveries as the complexity will send many readers heading out through the wings.
But I am supplying the link and personally I'd love to have this book but no more so than I would love to have many others when I am already burdened by those I do have.
The Brain is an organ we all need to be mindful of, just think of that narrow passage, known as the neck, that links everything we think ,either voluntarily or involuntarily with everything we do, once again, voluntarily or involuntarily.
Gross clinic
The link to Oxford journals
I do hope you found this interesting. Did YOU?
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Louie, would you like to have a look at a drug affected brain [not yours dear]?
Thanks for the memories.
katyzzz