Beyond the Zonules of Zinn: A Fantastic Journey Through Your Brain - Hardcover

David Bainbridge

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674026101 ISBN 13: 9780674026100

Publisher: Harvard UP, 2008

Synopsis

In his latest book, David Bainbridge combines an otherworldly journey through the central nervous system with an accessible and entertaining account of how the brain's anatomy has often misled anatomists about its function. Bainbridge uses the structure of the brain to set his book apart from the many volumes that focus on brain function. He shows that for hundreds of years, natural philosophers have been interested in the grey matter inside our skulls, but all they had to go on was its structure. Almost every knob, protrusion, canal, and crease was named before anyone had an inkling of what it did - a kind of biological terra incognita with many weird and wonderful names: the zonules of Zinn, the obex ("the most Scrabble-friendly word in all of neuroanatomy"), the aqueduct of Sylvius, the tract of Goll.This uniquely accessible approach lays out what is known about the brain (its structure), what we can hope to know (its function), and what we may never know (its evolution). Along the way Bainbridge tells lots of wonderful stories about the "two pounds of blancmange" within our skulls, and tells them all with wit and style.

About this title

Review:

"The success and joy of David Bainbridge's book is to make such unusual names a
spur to interest. [...] This book does an excellent job of introducing the layout of the
brain in an easily digestible form through describing the history of its discovery while
celebrating quirkiness in its nomenclature and the eccentricities of early anatomists.
[...] Bainbridge has an accessible style and a vivid turn of phrase. [...] This book is
enjoyable to read and provides an excellent contribution to making some of the
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apparently bizarre structure and functioning of the brain accessible to the lay reader.
All neuroscientists should also welcome it: as a teacher of neuroanatomy for many
years I certainly read it with pleasure."
-- Times Higher Education 17/04/08 M. W. Brown

About the Author:

David Bainbridge is Clinical Anatomist, St. Catharine's College, Cambridge University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard UP
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0674026101
• ISBN 13: 9780674026100
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304