The Bard on the Brain by Paul M. Matthews and Jeffrey McQuain, Dana Press, 拢24.50/$35, ISBN 0972383026 Reviewed by Eleanor Case
SAMUEL JOHNSON described William Shakespeare as 鈥渢he poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life鈥is persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated鈥︹�� Quite fitting, then, that neurologist Paul Matthews and literary scholar Jeffrey McQuain chose Shakespeare as a guide to understanding the mind.
Shakespeare investigated how the human mind works 400 years ago, whereas brain scientists today have the tools 鈥� such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging 鈥� to address the questions that fascinated Shakespeare. It is a happy partnership on the whole: Shakespeare sets the scene for a topic, then The Bard on the Brain raises the curtain on modern neuroscience鈥檚 investigation of it, adding a bright array of brain scans and photographs from Shakespeare productions.
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One striking MRI scan reveals how smell and taste are organised in the brain. Strong odours, for example, increase activity in the orbitofrontal cortex. And Prince Hal鈥檚 switch from wild rakishness to maturity in Henry IV leads us to a new understanding of Phineas Gage鈥檚 damaged brain. Gage was a railway construction supervisor who survived a long metal rod thrust through the front of his brain, only to become irritable, unreliable and irresponsible. The rod damaged his orbitofrontal and prefrontal cortices, now known to be associated with forward planning and the means to understand consequences of actions.
At times the juxtaposition of Shakespeare and brain science is laboured. For example, Hamlet鈥檚 pondering of Yorick鈥檚 skull is linked to a section on how the folds of the brain are specific to individuals: 鈥淭he remarkable thing in Hamlet鈥檚 musings is the way in which he so specifically appreciates this particular skull as having belonged to Yorick. In fact鈥︹�� And there is a feeling as you read on through each section that the juxtaposition is becoming a bit formulaic.
But The Bard on the Brain is a valuable way in for anyone eager to learn about the mysteries of the mind and the latest exciting developments in brain science.