Examines the role of an influential neurological institute in shaping a new, interdisciplinary science—neuroscience—and advancing it worldwide.
Wired Together explains the rise of neuroscience by tracing the history of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and the men and women who transformed it into neuroscience's most innovative and productive research site. Opened by neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield in 1934, the MNI pioneered the surgical treatment of epilepsy and transformed the operating theater into a new kind of scientific laboratory for investigating the functions of the brain. But more than that, the MNI became a crucial site for forming new interdisciplinary practices. These involved, as Yvan Prkachin puts it, wiring together new assemblies of physicians, surgeons, and scientists into a growing network that made possible the emergence of an interdisciplinary science of the brain.
Wired Together also traces how the MNI and its network of scientists spread this new interdisciplinary neuroscience to the rest of the world. Prkachin uncovers the surprising history of some of the most important neuroscientific organizations, discoveries, theories, and instruments from their beginnings in Montreal through the complex international networks of the post-war sciences. In doing so, he tells the stories of the most crucial and least understood characters from early neuroscience—such as Brenda Milner, Donald Hebb, Herbert Jasper, Molly Harrower, and David Hubel—as well as the surprising origins of scientific practices and ideas like sensory deprivation, multiple forms of memory, and artificial neural networks.
By:
Yvan Prkachin
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 399g
ISBN: 9780226845463
ISBN 10: 022684546X
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 12 January 2026
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Archival Abbreviations Introduction Part I: A Genealogy of Neuroscience 1. At the Crossroads of Scientific Medicine: Wilder Penfield, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Genesis of the Montreal Neurological Institute 2. The Montreal Method: Molly Harrower, Brenda Milner, and the Neuroscience of Memory 3. A Tale of Two Sciences: Herbert Jasper, Francis Schmitt, and the Origins of Neuroscience Part II: Weak Ties and Afterlives 4. From Natural Intelligence to Artificial Intelligence: D. O. Hebb, K.M., and the Cognitive Revolution 5. Two Solitudes: Psychosurgery and the Troubled Relationship between Wilder Penfield and Ewen Cameron 6. Eye, Brain, Vision: David Hubel, Microelectrodes, and the Science of Seeing Conclusion: Reassembling the Origins of Neuroscience Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index
Yvan Prkachin is a senior research associate at the Institute of Biomedical Ethics and History of Medicine at the University of Zurich.
Reviews for Wired Together: The Montreal Neurological Institute and the Origins of Neuroscience
“The excellent Wired Together shows that the Montreal Neurological Institute was at the heart of the development of neuroscience. Prkachin explores the MNI’s fascinating and ambiguous global legacies, ranging from novel experimental tools to CIA-funded attempts at brainwashing. The combination of deft analysis, theoretical sophistication, and fascinating stories makes the book a must-read not only for those interested in the history of neuroscience, but for those who care about scientific institutions, interdisciplinarity, and Cold War-era scientific ties.” -- Melinda Baldwin, author of “Making ‘Nature’: The History of a Scientific Journal”
