Mapping Mental Illness

One scientist’s quest to demystify the human brain

- SIMON LEWSEN

IN THE ’90S, when he was a doc­ toral student at the University of Lausanne, in Switzerland, neuro­ scientist Sean Hill spent five years studying how cat brains respond to noise. At the time, researchers knew that two regions — the cerebral cortex, which is the outer layer of the brain, and the thalamus, a nut­like structure near the centre  did most of the work. But, when an auditory signal entered the brain through the ear, what happened, specifically? Which parts of the cortex and thalamus did the signal travel to? And in what order? The an­swers to such questions could help doc­ tors treat hearing loss in humans. So, to learn more, Hill, along with his super­ visor and a group of lab techs, anaes­thetized cats and inserted electrodes into their brains to monitor what hap­pened when the animals were exposed to sounds, which were piped into their ears via miniature headphones. Hill’s probe then captured the brain signals the noises generated.

The last step was to euthanize the cats and dissect their brains, which was the only way for Hill to verify where he’d put his probes. It was not a part of the study he enjoyed. He’d grown up on a family farm in Maine and had developed a rev­erence for all sentient life. As an under­ graduate student in New Hampshire, he’d experimented on pond snails, but only after ensuring that each was properly anaesthetized. “I particularly loved cats,” he says, “but I also deeply believed in the need for animal data.” (For obvious rea­ sons, neuroscientists cannot euthanize and dissect human subjects.)