Short description:

This book is a fascinating collection of various neuroscience terms coined over the last two centuries. Each of the 45 chapters in this book dives deep into the etymologies, vernacular subtleties and historical anecdotes relating to these terms.

Long description:

This book is a fascinating collection of various neuroscience terms coined over the last centuries. Each of the 45 chapters in this book dives deep into the etymologies, vernacular subtleties and historical anecdotes relating to these terms.

The book illustrates the rich and diverse history of neuroscience, which has borrowed and continues to borrow terms and concepts from across cultures, literature and languages. The ever-increasing number of terms that needed to be coined with the mushrooming of the field required neuroscientists to show astonishing imagination and creativity, leading them to draw inspiration from Graeco-Roman mythology (Elpenor?s syndrome), literature (Lasthenie de Ferjol?s syndrome), theatre (Ondine?s curse), Japanese folklore (Kanashibari), and even the Bible (Matthew effect). This book will of be immense interest to scholars and researchers studying neuroscience, history of science, anatomy, psychology and linguistics. It will also appeal to any reader interested in learning more about neuroscience and its history.

All the chapters included in this book were originally published in a column that appeared from 1997 to 2020 in the Journal of the History of the Neurosciences.

Table of Contents:

1. Rhinencephalon: A Brain for the Nose?






2. Fornix and Gyrus fornicates: Carnal Sins?








3. Cerebral Mythology: A Skull Stuffed With Gods








4. The Three Musketeers and the Twelve Cranial Nerves








5. Just What is the Inferior Cerebellar Peduncle?








6. Vague, Uncertain, Ambiguous, Obscure: Imprecision or Modesty?








7. Vater, Pacini, Wagner, Meissner, Golgi, Mazzoni, Ruffini, Merkel and Krause: Were their nerves all on edge?








8. The Subfornical and Subcommissural Organs: Never-Ending Rediscoveries








9. Arachnophobia: Spiders and Spider?s Webs in the Head








10. Claustrum: A Sea Wall Between the Island and the Shell?








11. Phantom Limb: Haunted Body?








12. Lasthénie de Ferjol?s Syndrome: A Tribute Paid by Jean Bernard to Jules Amédée Barbey d?Aurevilly








13. Ansa Hypoglossi or Ansa Cervicalis: That is the Question?








14. Reissner?s Fibre: The Exception Which Proves the Rule, or the Devil According to Charles Baudelaire?








15. If there are "Deep" Cerebellar Nuclei, Where are the "Superficial" Ones?








16. "James Parkinson did not die of his own personal disease? he died of a stroke" Eponyms: Possessive or Nonpossessive?








17. Give a Kiss to a Frog and it Will Turn into? A Neuropeptide: The Genealogy of the Bombesin-Like Family








18. Nomenclature of Persistent Carotid Vertebrobasilar Anastomoses








19. Interthalamic Adhesion: Scruples About Calling a Spade a Spade?








20. Herophilus? Press, Torcular and Confluens Sinuum: A Triple Mistake








21. From Dante Alighieri?s First Circle to Paul Donald MacLean?s Limbic System








22. Elpenor?s Syndrome: The Link Between One of Ulysses? Companions and the Tenth President of the Third French Republic








23. Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy: Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Baron von Münchhausen, Hasn?t Got Anything To Do With It








24. Oedipus Complex: A Confession to a Berlin Otorhinolaryngologist that Became a Cornerstone of Psychoanalysis








25. The Brain in its Birthday Suit: No More Reason to be Ashamed








26. The Pen Nib and the Bolt: The Rhomboid Fossa of the Fourth Ventricle or the Symbol of the Censorship of the Press?








27. A Concert Hall for Stringed Musical Instruments Under the Splenium of the Corpus Callosum








28. The Cerebellum the Earthworm and the Freshwater Crayfish: An Unpublished Fable of Jean de La Fontaine?








29. Korbinian Brodmann: The Victor Hugo of Cytoarchitectonic Brain Maps








30. Brain Heraldic Tinctures and Evolution Theory: A Sensational Turn of Events That Should Have Been Kept Secret








31. Renfield?s Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness drawn From Bram Stoker?s Dracula








32. "Matthew Effect" in Neurosciences








33. Is Poetry a Disease of the Brain, as Alfred de Vigny Said?








34. Between André Du Laurens? Horst Tail and William Cadogan?s Pony Tail








35. Kanashibari (???): A Ghost?s Business








36. "Magic Mirror in my Hand, Who is the Fairest in the Land? and, Incidentally, Are You Transparent or Shining?"








37. Trigeminal Neuralgia: Pleonasm and Miscalculation








38. Hallervorden-Spatz Disease: Did One Set the Fox to Mind the Geese?








39. The sleeping brain: Extenuating circumstances of the Marquis de La Fayette on October 6, 1789








40. The devil always experienced malicious pleasure in imposing himself in neuropsychiatric nosology








41. Tabes dorsalis: Not, at all, "Elementary my dear Watson!"








42. Ondine?s curse: With Jean Giraudoux?s finishing touches








43. Moyamoya (????): When cerebral arteries go up in smoke








44. Migraine: Between headache, pomegranate, seed of cochineal, and unidentified fish

  45.   Phrenology: Scheherazade of etymology