Springer Neural Substrates of Memory, Affective Functions, and Conscious Experience: 166 (Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology, 166)

It is important, indeed necessary, we believe, that the study of the higher brain func tions be introduced by a brief account of the evolution of the philosophical thinking and scientific researches on cognition. The intuition that sensations and intelligence reside in the brain goes back to the Egyptians, in particular the Edwin Smith papyrus, probably dated between 2500 and 3000 b. c. , where the term "brain" appears for the first time and where there is a description of its coverings (meninges) and circumvolutions (Walsh 1994). The philosophical debate on brain and mind made its appearance in ancient l Greece and in subsequent centuries developed among the philosophers. The flow of sensations, the process of thinking, and the site of reason were localized in the brain, according to Alcmaeon of Croton (sixth to fifth centuries b. c. ) and subsequently Lattanzio, Alexander of Tralles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, and particularly Hip pocrates (460-377 b. c. ), who placed the soul, envisaged as a mental function, in the brain. Plato (427-347 b. c. ) believed that the brain provided the sensory experiences (hearing, sight, smell) and that from these were generated thinking and memory, and the act of thinking produced the truth or "episteme. " The formulation of the problem changes radically with Aristotle (384-322 b. c. ), who believed that the heart, and not the brain, was the site of passions, feelings, intelligence, and thought (Gross 1995). From the Back Cover This review presents an account of the areas and circuits of the brain that are thought to be involved in such cognitive functions as memory, affect and consciousness. Considerable progress has been made in the past two decades in the identification of the cerebral areas and in our understanding of the brain mechanisms involved in these functions, thanks in large parts to a number of imaging observations (PET and fMRI), together with many clinical neurological and experimental studies. Thus, there is now convincing evidence that these high level functions are represented in a complex organization of interconnected cortical and subcortical areas that operate as spatially distributed systems, specialized for the different cognitive activities. Despite the progress that has been made, it is still not known how genetic and environmental factors interact during early development and throughout life to create the necessary conditions out of which these cognitive capacities emerge, nor is it evident to what extent they are shaped by adaptive changes in synaptic organization and other forms of neuronal plasticity.