A Hole in the Head: More Tales in the History of Neuroscience

Neuroscientist Charles Gross has been interested in the history of hisfield since his days as an undergraduate. " A Hole in the Head" isthe second collection of essays in which he illuminates the study of the brain withfascinating episodes from the past. This volume's tales range from the history oftrepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) to neurosurgery as pai

Neuroscientist Charles Gross has been interested in the history of hisfield since his days as an undergraduate. " A Hole in the Head" isthe second collection of essays in which he illuminates the study of the brain withfascinating episodes from the past. This volume's tales range from the history oftrepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) to neurosurgery as painted by HieronymusBosch to the discovery that bats navigate using echolocation.

Theemphasis is on blind alleys and errors as well as triumphs and discoveries, withancient practices connected to recent developments and controversies. Gross firstreaches back into the beginnings of neuroscience, then takes up the interaction ofart and neuroscience, exploring, among other things, Rembrandt's "AnatomyLesson" paintings, and finally, examines discoveries by scientists whose workwas scorned in their own time but proven correct in later eras.