THE HISTORY OF BRAIN RESEARCHGETTY,^ ALAMY,^ SUZANNECORKIN/ALLEN^ LANE/PENGUINBOOKSapproaches to brain function. In 2013,
a review of the field estimated that
over 130,000 f MR I resea rch studies
had been published, a figure that will
by now be substantially higher.The next step
Increasingly sophisticated methods
for recording and decoding brain
activity have helped contribute
to important neuroscience
breakthroughs in recent years. For
example, there has been huge progress
in brain-machine interfaces, which
enable paralysed people to control
computer cursors or prosthetic limbs
using thought alone.
Other research has shown that it’sQuadriplegic Jan
Scheuermann uses
thought to control a
robotic armon the scalp. Previously, researchers
had to make assumptions about the
location of different mental functions
based on the effects of brain injury and
by looking for patterns of damage at
post-mortem. With EEG they could see
how different regions of the brain
become more active depending on
what the person was saying, thinking
or doing. But the problem with EEG is
t hat while it provides good temporal
resolution – revealing changes in
brain activity from one millisecond to
the next – its spatial resolution is
crude. This limitation was overcome
in the 1960s with the advent of
positron emission tomography (PET),
which allowed researchers to monitor
cha nging patter ns of blood f low in t he
brain in high resolution. Things
progressed even further in the 1990s
with the emergence of functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
which also has good spatial resolution
but, unlike PET, does not require the
injection of a radioactive isotope.
fMRI has had a huge influence on
the study of the brain and is now
the principal technique used in
cognitive neuroscience, merging
psychological and biologicalpossible to use recorded brain activity
patter ns to communicate wit h some
patients who were previously thought
to be in a non-communicative,
persistent vegetative state.
But, alt hough we’ve made great
strides in our understanding of the
brain, the truth is that we’ve barely
scratched the surface of this highly
complex organ. And, sadly,
devastating illnesses such as
Alzheimer’s and motor neurone
disease still remain incurable. Let’s
hope this changes with the record
levels of investment being ploughed
into new neuroscience research
programmes, such as the BRAIN
Initiative in the US and the Human
Brain Project in Europe. A key player
in the latter project is neuroscientist
and entrepreneur Henry Markram,
who in a TED talk said: “It is not
impossible to build a human brain.”
He made t hat claim back in 2009 a nd
in the decade since, his project has got
a lot closer to reaching that goal.1901
Alois Alzheimer
the German psychiatrist,
makes detailed notes on
Auguste Deter, the first
person to be diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s disease.
“I have lost myself,” she
tells Alzheimer.
1913
Santiago Ramón y Cajal,
the Spanish neuroscientist
publishes Degeneration and
Regeneration of the Nervous
System, a book that details
his ground-breaking findings
on brain injury and recovery.
But Ramón y Cajal also
claimed, in error, that new
neurons do not grow in
adult brains.1985
The British neurologist
Oliver Sacks publishes his
best-selling book The Man
Who Mistook His Wife for a
Hat. He becomes renowned
for chronicling the human
element in stories of brain
illness and injury. The New
York Times once called
Sacks “the Poet Laureate
of medicine”.1953
Patient Henry Molaison
undergoes brain surgery
for intractable epilepsy.
Doctors remove a section
of his brain, including the
hippocampus, leaving him
with profound amnesia.
He becomes one of
neuroscience’s most
studied individuals.2013
President Barack Obama
launches the BRAIN
Initiative. “As humans, we
can identify galaxies light-
years away, we can study
particles smaller than an
atom. But we still haven’t
unlocked the mystery of the
three pounds of matter that
sits between our ears.”by DR CHRISTIAN JARRETT
(@Psych_Writer) Dr Jarrett is a neuroscientist
and author of Great Myths of the Brain.