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

Neuroscientist Charles Gross has been interested in the history of his field sincehis days as an undergraduate. A Hole in the Head is the second collection ofessays in which he illuminates the study of the brain with fascinating episodes from the past. Thisvolume's tales range from the history of trepanation (drilling a hole in the skull) to neurosurgeryas painted by Hieronymus Bosch to the discovery that bats navigate using echolocation.

The emphasis is on blind alleys and errors as well as triumphs and discoveries,with ancient practices connected to recent developments and controversies. Gross first reaches backinto the beginnings of neuroscience, then takes up the interaction of art and neuroscience,exploring, among other things, Rembrandt's "Anatomy Lesson" paintings, and finally,examines discoveries by scientists whose work was scorned in their own time but proven correct inlater eras.

Charles G. Gross, a neuroscientist specializing in vision and the functions of the cerebral cortex, is Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. He is the author of Vision, Brain, Memory: Tales in the History of Neuroscience (MIT Press, 1998).