Gordon M. Shepherd, Creating Modern Neuroscience: The Revolutionary 1950s

Extract

The 1950s was a decade of remarkable advances in every level of neuroscience from the molecular to the theoretical. Gordon Shepherd is uniquely positioned to tell this story. Beyond publishing a superb neuroscience textbook and a history of the early days of the neuron doctrine, Shepherd, a distinguished olfactory neurophysiologist, worked at several of the cutting-edge laboratories and personally knew many of the leading neuroscientists of this decade. This makes his en passant sketches of them a unique insight. Unlike the usual pop science accounts, this well- written account spares us their hair and clothing styles but provides a flavour of their scientific personalities.

The book is structured along the hierarchical organisation of the neurosciences. The book begins with genes (the Watson–Crick DNA revolution), and then goes on to signalling molecules (growth factors and neurotransmitters), synapses, the action potential, neurons, then neural circuits and systems, learning and memory, clinical subjects (neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychiatry) and finally theoretical neuroscience. It is particularly strong on the intermediate levels where Shepherd is an expert.