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Wired Together
The Montreal Neurological Institute and the Origins of Neuroscience
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Yvan Prkachin
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2026
About this book
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.
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.
Reviews
“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”“Wired Together represents a magnificent accomplishment. In writing what will surely stand as the definitive history of the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), Prkachin has also rewritten the history of the origins of neuroscience. In contrast to accounts that stress the importance of developments at MIT in this history, the author offers a new origin story that highlights developments at McGill University’s MNI. A remarkable group of figures—neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, neurophysiologist Herbert Jasper, and psychologists Molly Harrower, Brenda Milner, Donald Hebb, and David Hubel—came together there during the period from 1930–1960 to usher in a new era in brain science. Prodigiously researched, beautifully written, theoretically incisive, this book tells the story of how these figures were—to borrow from Hebb’s famous postulate that nerves that wire together, fire together—‘wired together’ through a series of momentous interdisciplinary collaborations to produce foundational work in the treatment of epilepsy, in cognitive and memory science, and in the science of vision. It was these collaborations, Prkachin persuasively argues, that laid the foundations for much of today’s neuroscience.”
— Andreas Killen, author of “Nervous Systems: Brain Science in the Early Cold War”Topics
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Frontmatter
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Content
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Archival Abbreviations
vii -
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Introduction
1 -
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PART I A Genealogy of Neuroscience
15 -
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PART II Weak Ties and Afterlives
113 -
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Conclusion: Reassembling the Origins of Neuroscience
201 -
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Acknowledgment
209 -
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Notes
213 -
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Bibliograph
251 -
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Index
271
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
January 12, 2026
eBook ISBN:
9780226845449
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9780226845449
Audience(s) for this book
For an expert adult audience, including professional development and academic research
