Brains : the mind as matter / Marius Kwint and Richard Wingate.

  • Kwint, Marius.
Date:
2012
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Brains : the mind as matter / Marius Kwint and Richard Wingate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/164 (page 6)
    Preface Ken Arnold Head of Public Programmes, Wellcome Collection Each of us walks around with about 1.4 kilograms of soft, pudding¬ like tissue perched at the top of our spinal column. Closer inspection reveals an extraordinary number of constituent cells with a set of interconnections that makes each brain unique. We have gradually come to define life in terms of our brains being switched 'on'; turning them 'off' quite simply kills us. From this bewilderingly mysterious organ emerges the totality of our experiences, feelings, ideas and understandings. Memories are made and stored there, habits formed and broken, personalities shaped and shattered. Little wonder, then, that the investigation of this most precious thing has been so central in attempts to fathom the essence of the human condition. But as Richard Wingate reminds us, the brain's ''inner workings are completely inscrutable, with no obvious moving parts, no pumps, valves or tendons. To bypass this seemingly intractable problem, much brain research has for centuries adopted a core philosophical assumption that the brain is a 'thinking machine'. Calculating engines from the 17th century and the first programmable computers invented in the 1830s served as early examples of that analogy, with the internet providing the latest model to latch onto. The essential medical conundrum of studying life via death - not being able to witness our internal workings without stopping them - led to a range of audacious investigative strategies. One such tried to relate brain sizes and shapes to the supposed characteristics and interests of their owners. To this end the brains of the famous, and especially of the famously brainy, were studied very closely. Another method focused instead on partially damaged specimens, which gradually enabled researchers to elaborate the theory that mental capacities such as memory or touch resided in particular areas of the brain. Through the 19th century, the anatomical idea of looking at bits of the brain was pursued in ever-finer detail. Eventually, tissue examined under the microscope yielded the discovery of 'thought cells': the neurons. This book (like the associated exhibition at Wellcome Collection) is stubbornly concerned with the brain as a venerated physical object. It investigates how brains have been measured and classified, mapped and modelled, cut and treated, given and taken. And despite the myriad means by which functioning brains can now be examined non-invasively, it asserts the continued relevance of pondering not only what the brain does, but also what it is.