We know people have been thinking about brains since ancient Egyptian times. From the sixth century BCE people began to understand that the brain was the home of the mind. As the scientific method developed, study of the brain formed part of this rational approach to new knowledge.

Technological advances have played their part in both understanding and communicating knowledge about the brain. These have included images of the brain, from the introduction of engravings in printed books to the latest diagnostic imaging used by hospital neurologists.

You are warmly invited to a talk by two experts in these disparate but related fields, Dr Alexandra Franklin (Bodleian Special Collections) and Professor Chrystalina Antoniades (Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences).

Alex will show books from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries illustrating medical treatments of the eyes and brain, and Chrystalina will present how the technological advances of the last few decades have changed the way we can diagnose brain disorders.

This talk forms part of the Brain Diaries series of events revealing how the latest neuroscience is transforming what we know about the lifelong development of our brains, from birth to the end of life. It is a partnership with Oxford Neuroscience.

Professor Chrystalina Antoniades is an Associate Professor at the Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford and a lecturer in medicine at Brasenose college. She has recently set up her own research group, the NeuroMetrology Lab. She has been awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Award for public engagement and is passionate about engaging her research with the public.

Dr Alexandra Franklin is the Coordinator of the Centre for the Study of the Book, part of the Bodleian Libraries’ Special Collections. She coordinates programmes aimed at making Special Collections material more accessible to students, researchers, and the public.