By administering low-level electric shocks to different parts of the cerebral cortex, he conjured dramatic sights, sounds, or sensations in his subjects' minds. He specialized in neurosurgery, and according to author Sam Kean, 'probably did more than any other scientist to explain how the brain works in real time.' Penfield kept his patients awake, a common practice, given that the upper brain isn't receptive to physical pain. A former Princeton class president and varsity athlete, Penfield traded in his all-American credentials to establish an unorthodox medical practice in Montreal in the late twenties. Wilder Penfield was among the most important explorers of the 20th century. Suspicious Minds: How Culture Shapes Madnessīy Joel Gold and Ian Gold, Free Press, 352 pages, $32

The human brain is made up of three parts: the lower brain, the middle brain and the cortex.The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recoveryīy Sam Kean, Little, Brown and Co., 416 pages, $30 We owe much of our knowledge about the human brain to unfortunate individuals like King Henri, and the brilliant scientists who studied their brains after their deaths. This enabled them to uncover the cause of his hallucinations: the king’s skull was intact but the injury had caused swelling and tissue decay at the back of his brain.Īndreas and Vesalius’s findings helped establish the credibility of autopsies as a means of scientific research. He was bedridden for weeks, experiencing hallucinations and painful headaches until he died.Īfter the king died, a surgeon named Ambroise Parè and an anatomist named Andreas Vesalius conducted an autopsy on his head – a highly contentious move at the time. Henri had suffered a severe blow to the forehead during a joust. It showed that post-mortem examinations could provide us with deeper insight into the inner workings of the brain. The famous 1559 autopsy of King Henri II of France was the first breakthrough in this field. Autopsies often revealed damage to specific brain regions, so researchers could ascertain what activities those regions were responsible for, based on the person’s unusual behavior. Woodrow Wilson, for example, lost the ability to notice things to his left after he suffered a stroke in 1919.Įarly neuroscientists often conducted their research by performing autopsies on people with brain damage after they died. People with brain disorders often perceive the world oddly or behave in unusual ways.

That’s why the pioneers of neuroscience learned about the brain mostly by studying individuals with brain damage.

Throughout most of our history, scientists couldn’t see what was happening in people’s heads without drilling a hole into their skulls.

The tale of two dueling neurosurgeons