The Birth of Modern Neuroscience in Turin

Dr. Stefano Sandrone is a neuroscientist working at Imperial College London. He is the past Chair of the History of Neurology Section at the American Academy of Neurology. He was awarded the Julia Higgins Award and the President's Award from Imperial College London, the Science Educator Award presented by the Society for Neuroscience, and the H. Richard Tyler Award, the Lawrence C. McHenry Award and the A.B. Baker Teacher Recognition Award from the American Academy of Neurology.Dr. Lorenzo Lorusso is a neurologist and the director of the neurology unit at the neuroscience department of the Azienda Socio-Sanitario Territoriale Lecco in Merate, Italy. He is the past Chair of the History Committee at the Federation of the European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) and the past President of the International Society for the History of the Neuroscience. He has organised several meetings in the history of medicine and neuroscience for national and international societies.

Even though the text is rich of specific historical data, it never exceeds into bore and the reader is fascinated by the flow of scientific thoughts through the decades, and as a neuroscientist and a member of the scientific community is often struck by aha moments which explain from where his knowledge and way of thinking originated.

• 1. The Savoy-Piedmont 'Renaissance': from pre-Enlightenment to the end of the 18th century 2. The Savoy-Piedmont 'Renaissance': between materialism and spiritualism 3. Carlo Francesco Giuseppe Bellingeri, a forgotten pioneer of the Italian neurology 4. Exploring the Museum of Human Anatomy 5. Cesare Lombroso: an unconventional biography 6. Seeing the history of neuroscience in Turin through the lenses of its instruments/part 1 7. Enrico Morselli in Turin: expectations, challenges and disappointment 8. Neuroimaging before neuroimaging: Angelo Mosso's pioneering experiments 9. The role of Federico Kiesow in the development of experimental psychology in Europe 10. Camillo Negro: neurologist, neuroscientist, science communicator and mentor 11. Brief happy military-neurophysiological stint of Mario Camis in wartime Turin 12. Seeing the history of neuroscience in Turin through the lenses of its instruments/part 2 13. Giulio Bizzozero and Aldo Perroncito: reform and regeneration 14. Ernesto Lugaro: the founder of the Turin neurological school 15. Ernesto Lugaro: contributions to modern psychiatry 16. Agostino Gemelli's years in Turin 17. Mario Ponzo and the age of visual illusions 18. Science and literature at Giuseppe Levi's home in Turin 19. Myth, religion, politics and literature 20. A real imperfection? Rita and the long story of the Nerve Growth Factor Acknowledgments