Introduction -- Past: Heart -- Forces -- Electricity -- Function -- Evolution -- Inhibition -- Neurons -- Machines -- Control -- Present: Memory -- Circuits -- Computers -- Chemistry -- Localisation -- Consciousness -- Future

"For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we still have only the vaguest idea of how the brain works. In The Idea of the Brain, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb traces how our conception of the brain has evolved over the centuries. Although it might seem to be a story of ever-increasing knowledge of biology, Cobb shows how our ideas about the brain have been shaped by each era's most significant technologies." -- Amazon.com