Neurobiographies: Writing Lives in the History of Neurology and the Neurosciences

This essay surveys the present state of biographical writing in the history of neurology and neuroscience. Individual lives play a significant role in practitioner-historians' narratives, whereas academic historians tend to be more nonindividualistic and a-biographical. Autobiographies by neurologists and neuroscientists, and particularly autobiographical collections, are problematic as an historical genre. Neurobiographies proper are published with several aims in mind: some are written as literary entertainment, others as contributions to a cultural and social history of the neurosciences. Eulogy, panegyrics and commemoration play a great role in neurobiographical writing. Some biographies, finally, are written to provide role-models for young neuroscientists, thus reviving the classical, Plutarchian biographical tradition. Finally, a recent cooperative biography of Charcot is mentioned as an example of how the biographical genre can help overcome the alleged dichotomy between the historiographies of practitioner-historians and academic historians.     

Inclusiveness and coherency in the history of the neurosciences

The International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) defines "neurosciences" broadly, and we want to encourage the widest possible range of scholarly approaches to our subject. However, this deliberate inclusiveness could potentially cause problems with internal coherency in our organization and in the scholarship that we are trying to create. In other words, we need to avoid the pitfalls of the internalist-externalist tension without losing the benefits of both perspectives. In fact, I think that there is a large and interesting "gray zone," where the boundary between these supposedly separate approaches is both artificial and porous. This should be one of the most rewarding intellectual domains for the study of neuroscience history, because our subject is always culturally loaded by the mind/body problem and by the assumptions that it entails. Of course, neuroscience history is also influenced by all of the other cultural and scientific aspects of the milieus in which it is conducted. Understanding neuroscience history in all of its multiple historical contexts will require the participation of a wide range of scholarly viewpoints. To keep ourselves coherent in the process, we will have to educate each other.     

Twelfth annual meeting of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences. June 19-23, 2007

Christian Baumann (Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany): Wilbrand's ideas of the visual cortex. Hermann Wilbrand (1851-1935) is considered one of the founders of neuro-opthalmology. He is best known for the monumental handbook, Die Neurologie des Auges (Wilbrand &Saenger, 1898-1922). Prior to this encyclopedic work, Wilbrand published three clinical monographs on the diagnosis of brain diseases with the help of ophthalmological examinations(Wilbrand 1881, 1884, 1890). But Wilbrand not only treated clinical aspects but also supplied evidence for the localization of the optical center in the calcarine fissure of the occipital cortex. Moreover, he worked out theories of the organization of the visual cortex that, as he postulated, must contain subdivisions corresponding to the qualities of visual sensation such as light, form, and color. Wilbrand also considered the binocular input of the visual cortex and put forward a detailed scheme of the projection of the two retinae to the occipital cortex that anticipated modern concepts of ocular dominance columns. His ideas are critically reviewed in the light of current opinions about his topics.     

REPORT The British Contribution to the Neurosciences

The evolution of techniques to manage patients with head injuries has served as the basis for the treatment of other neurosurgical disorders, including brain tumors, intracranial infections, and cerebrovascular disease. In the nineteenth century, advances in anesthesia, asepsis, and cerebral localization slowly took hold and created the groundwork for modern neurosurgery. To better understand the advances in the treatment of brain injuries in the late 1800s and early 1900s, we examine relevant historical literature and, through the courtesy of the Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives, we review Dr. Harvey Cushing's patient records (1898–1909) in the Johns Hopkins Hospital surgical archives. The original case histories of 10 patients (6 in detail) who suffered head injuries and underwent treatment by Cushing illustrate some of Cushing's early attempts at intracranial surgery. We also examine the influences on Cushing as he developed into a leader in the new era of modern neurosurgery.     

The Origin of the Term Plasticity in the Neurosciences: Ernesto Lugaro and Chemical Synaptic Transmission

The Italian psychiatrist Ernesto Lugaro can be regarded as responsible for introducing the term plasticity into the neurosciences as early as 1906. By this term he meant that throughout life the anatomo-functional relations between neurons can change in an adaptive fashion to enable psychic maturation, learning, and even functional recovery after brain damage. Lugaro’s concept of plasticity was strongly inspired by a neural hypothesis of learning and memory put forward in 1893 by his teacher Eugenio Tanzi. Tanzi postulated that practice and experience promote neuronal growth and shorten the minute spatial gaps between functionally associated neurons, thus facilitating their interactions. In addition to discovering the cerebellar cells known by his name and advancing profound speculations about the functions of the glia, Lugaro lucidly foresaw the chemical nature of Synaptic transmission in the central nervous system, and was the first to propose the usage of the terms “nervous conduction” and “nervous transmission” in their currently accepted meaning.     

Neurosciences and research on chemical weapons of mass destruction in Nazi Germany

As a side-product of industrial research, new chemical nerve agents (Tabun, Sarin, Soman) superior to those available to the Allied Forces were discovered in Nazi Germany. These agents were never used by Germany, even though they were produced at a large scale. This article explores the toxicological and physiological research into the mechanisms of action of these novel nerve agents, and the emergence of military research objectives in neurophysiological and neurotoxicological research. Recently declassified Allied military intelligence files document secret nerve agent research, leading to intensified research on anticholinesterase agents in the peripheral and the central nervous system. The article discusses the involvement of IG Farben scientists, educational, medical and military institutions, and of Nobel Prize laureate Richard Kuhn, director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research.