Neuronal man : the biology of mind by Changeux Jean-Pierre

Author:Changeux, Jean-Pierre
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Neuropsychology, Brain
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
Published: 1986-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Power of the Genes

Heredity is law.

—Charles Darwin

The cerebral machine constructs mental representations because it contains, in its anatomical organization, in its neurons and synapses, representations of the world around us. This organization is characteristic of a given species. According to Carolus Linnaeus in 1770, the description of a species relies on those "parts that are not subject to variation." Its scientific name often refers to these characteristic traits in abbreviated or symbolic form. Thus, modern man designated himself Homo sapiens sapiens, doubtlessly to emphasize a property that he feels characterizes his brain.

The definition of the species Homo sapiens sapiens depends just as much on the form of the brain as on the form of the skull, the hands, or the spinal column. Recall the reproductions of the human brain from Vesalius during the Renaissance (Figure 2), Willis in the classical age (Figure 3), and Leuret and Gratiolet in the nineteenth century (Figure 5). If we compare them with modern photographic atlases, we find the various pictures differ more in the way they are drawn and reproduced than in the actual form of the brain. Allowing for differences in artistic style and the technique of reproduction, the brain seems to have remained invariant since the sixteenth century, in spite of tremendous changes in the social and cultural environment.

The stability of the brain's gross anatomy, which serves as a basis for the neurobiological definition of the species (Figure 49), is also found in its microscopic details. Medical students have to learn a precise and rich nomenclature for the nuclei, tracts, and convolutions of the human brain. The very existence of this nomenclature is a measure of the invariance of the detailed anatomy. When Santiago Ramon y Cajal drew the neurons and fibers that make up the brain centers, he was

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