Synopses & Reviews
Modern brain imaging is revolutionizing the study of brain function in health and disease. However, few realize that its origins began in the nineteenth century with Dr. Angelo Mosso's pioneering experiments.
A foremost Italian physiologist and scientist, Angelo Mosso studied several patients brought to him with head injuries that exposed their live brains to direct, long-term observation. He took advantage of these rare opportunities to document, for the first time, changes in cerebral blood flow in response to different stimuli, behaviors, and emotions, the very same changes that are now the basis for the measurements underlying modern functional brain imaging.
Mosso was widely recognized by his contemporaries for his highly original studies, published both in Italian in 1878 and in German in 1881. Yet there has never been a translation through which this groundbreaking work could be appreciated by the English-speaking world. Indeed, Angelo Mosso's sophisticated experiments were to neuroscience what surgeon William Beaumont's in vivo observations were to gastric physiology fifty years earlier. This unique monograph establishes Mosso's rightful role as the pioneer of brain imaging. Through it, the modern reader, whether expert neuroscientist or interested student, can gain a new perspective on the author's remarkable insights: how behaviors as subtle as thinking about a subject or feeling an emotion produce the changes in pulsations of the brain that he observed and recorded for posterity.
Special features of this volume include first a brief summary of Mosso's life. Two pioneers of modern brain imaging, Marcus E. Raichle (winner of the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience) and Gordon M. Shepherd (Yale University Professor of Neurobiology) then review Mosso's work and provide extensive commentary to explain its relevance to modern brain science. The authors not only emphasize Mosso's pioneering role in brain imaging, but also his fundamental contribution to the rise of cognitive neuroscience. The English translation (by historian of medicine Christiane Nockels Fabbri) follows, together with all of the plates and illustrations of the original volume. The result is a classic of neuroscience, now available for wide appreciation by neuroscientists, neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, historians of science and medicine, and the general public.
Review
"How Antonio Mosso, an almost forgotten contributor to neuroimaging, was able to image brain activity without computers or MRI or any of the historical progression leading to modern methods beautifully traced in this volume, but instead with a simple recording device of his own design, will be extremely valuable to readers interested in how brain activity supports the mind. The editors are to be congratulated for bringing this important story to the English reading world."--Michael I. Posner, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Psychology , University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
"This pioneering investigation is at last available in English thanks to the masterful edition of Mosso's book by Gordon M. Shepherd and Marcus E. Raichle. This reading will be certainly inspiring for neuroscientists, psychologists and historians of science." --Paolo Mazzarello, MD, PhD, Professor of History of Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy
"Science is a conversation that spans centuries. In his Critical Historical Introduction, Mosso summarizes the contributions of his conceptual predecessors going back to Galen. In their Introduction, Raichle and Shepherd recount the conversation from Mosso to the present day. Jointly, a thoroughly scholarly, highly-entertaining account of the evolution of functional neuroimaging." --Peter T. Fox, M.D., Director, Research Imaging Institute, Malcolm Jones Professor of Radiology, Professor of Radiology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and Physiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, CA
"This unique work stands alone in terms of value and placing Mosso in historical perspective as the inventor of the plethysmograph and as a researcher who measured the relationship between emotion and brain activity." --Doody's Health Sciences Book Review
Synopsis
Modern brain imaging is revolutionizing the study of brain function in health and disease. Few realize that its origins began with a pioneering study in the nineteenth century by an Italian scientist, Angelo Mosso, of several subjects brought to him with head injuries that exposed their brains to direct observation. He took advantage of this opportunity to observe for the first time changes in cerebral blood flow in relation to different behaviors, the same changes that are the basis for the measurements underlying modern methods. Although Mosso was widely recognized for this highly original study by his contemporaries, through a German translation in 1881, there has never been a translation through which his magnificent achievement could be recognized in English. His rightful role as the pioneer in brain imaging has thus not been recognized. This unique volume corrects that deficiency. Through it, the modern reader, whether an expert in the field or an interested scientist or member of the public, can gain a new perspective on the remarkable insights Mosso gained into how behaviors as subtle as thinking about a subject or feeling an emotion can produce the changes in pulsations of the brain that he observed. The special features of this volume begin with a brief summary of Mosso's life. Two pioneers of modern brain imaging, Marcus Raichle and Gordon M. Shepherd, then provide an extensive commentary that succinctly summarizes Mosso's work and explains its relevance to modern methods. The authors not only emphasize Mosso's role as a pioneer in brain imaging, but also through this study as a pioneer in the eventual rise of cognitive neuroscience. The English translation then follows, together with all of the plates and illustrations of the original volume. The result is a classic of neuroscience now available for wide appreciation by neuroscientists, neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, historians of science and medicine, and the
About the Author
Marcus E Raichle, MD, PhDDepts of Radiology, Neurology, Anatomy and NeurobiologyWashington University School of Medicine
Gordon M. ShepherdDepartment of NeurobiologyYale University Medical School
Table of Contents
Introduction
Brief Biography of Angelo Mosso and His Times
Commentary: From Mosso to Modern Brain Imaging
Note on the Translation
Brief Translator's Biography
Translation: Circulation of Blood in the Human Brain
Critical Historical Introduction
1. Notes Concerning the Disease States of the Three Subjects in Whom the Conditions of the Blood Circulation in the Brain Were Studied
2. Description of the Equipment Used to Record the Pulse of the Brain and of Other Parts of the Body
3. General Considerations Regarding the Configuration of the Pulse
4.Concerning the Response of the Cerebral Circulation During Increased Mental Activity and With Emotional and Sensory Perceptions
5. Sleep and Its Relationship to Cerebral Blood Flow
6. Reflections on the Nature of Sleep and its Concomitant Phenomena
7. On the Fluctuations of the Cerebral Tracings That Are Controlled by the Movements of the Vessels and of the Heart
8. Concerning the Movements of the Blood Vessels in the External Ear of the Rabbit
9. The Influence of Respiratory Movements on the Blood Circulation in the Brain and in the Lungs
10. Experimental Critique of the Investigations on the Pulmonary Circulation Undertaken by Quincke and Pfeiffer, by Funke and Latschenberger, and by Bowditch and Garland
11. Influence of the Respiratory Movements on the Systemic Blood Pressure
12. Influence of Amyl Nitrite on the Blood Circulation in the Brain
13. Anemia and Hyperemia of the Brain
14. Concerning the Blood Circulation Inside the Intact Skull
15. Investigations Into the Movements of the Cerebrospinal Fluid
Index