Fascinating: quite esoteric: Discussion on current Neuroscience.

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NEUROSCIENCE In the mid-19thcentury a doctor had a patient who had suffered a stroke. The patient was unable to speak save for one word. The word was ‘Tan’ which became his name. When Tan died, the doctor discovered damage to the left side of his brain and concluded that the ability to speak was housed there.  This is how neuroscience used to work – by examining the dead or investigating the damaged – but now things have changed. Imaging machines and other technologies enable us to see the active brain in everyday life, to observe the activation of its cells and the mass firing of its neuron batteries.  But what picture of the brain has emerged, how has our understanding of it changed and what are the implications for understanding that most mysterious and significant of all phenomena – the human mind? Contributors Martin Conway, Professor of Psychology at the University of Leeds Gemma Calvert, Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at WMG, University of Warwick David Papineau, Professor of Philosophy of Science at King’s College London Further Reading Introducing Consciousness by David Papineau (Icon Books, 2000) Introducing Mind and Brain by Angus Gellatly (Icon Books, new ed. 2007) A Vision of the Brain by Semir Zeki (Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2003) Affective Neuroscience: Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions by J. Panksepp (Oxford University Press, 1998) Links Neuroscience For Kids Society for Neuroscience Wikipedia