Intact and Sliced Brain

Connecting in vitro and in vivo studies of the mammalian brain. In this book Mircea Steriade cautions against the tendency of some neuroscientists to infer global brain functions such as arousal and sleep, epileptic events, and even conscious thinking from the properties of single cells. Based on his lifetime of research on intact brains, Steriade emphasizes the need to understand isolated networks within the context of the whole mammalian brain and to understand the brain of a behaving animal in terms of its fully dissected circuits.

As much as knowledge of brain anatomy and function has progressed, Steriade is highly skeptical about the quest to relate consciousness to specific neuronal types. The book's sections are Changing Concepts of Localization of Brain Function, Evolution of Methods in Brain Studies, Similar and Contrasting Results from Studies in the Intact and Sliced Brain, Building Blocks of Synaptic Networks Underlying Normal and Paroxysmal States, and Of Neurons and Consciousness.