Published Books
Neuroscience of Synapses
‘The Neurobiology and Biophysics of Synapses’ (2020)
This work summarizes 60 years of my research on synapses and highlights four discoveries: first, that communication between cells in the peripheral nervous system is mediated by other transmitters than acetylcholine and noradrenaline, one of which is ATP; second, that molecules trigger neuronal growth cones to form an excess of synapses, with many later pruned; that stress culls synapses in certain parts of the brain, leading to the characteristic loss of grey matter detected with MRI; that the energy requirements of synapses in the brain accounts for the coupling between synaptic activity and blood flow detected by fMRI (BOLD).
ʻHistory of the Synapseʼ (2001)
Publisher: Harwood Academic; ISBN905823132
This book provides a detailed account of the most significant research that contributed to our understanding of the structure and function of synapses. Great research papers are highlighted as are the investigators, many of whom went on to the award of a Nobel Prize. Their seminal experiments are brought alive with the use of original figures from their papers. The history begins with Aristotle’s notion of transmission and more particularly Sherrington’s (Nobel Prize 1932) introduction of the word ‘synapse’ and finishes just as the molecular revolution in our understanding of synaptic function is initiated by Sakmann and Neher (Nobel Prize 1991).
ʻAutonomic Neuromuscular Transmissionʼ (1972)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press; ISBN 0521084636
This was my first book, written (1969-1970) at the request of the Philosophical Society (U.K.) for their Monograph series following my PhD and the discovery of NANC transmission in the Autonomic Nervous System. It attempts for the first time to identify the nerve varicosity as the structural unit for transmitter release and describes in analytical detail transmission from the varicosity to produce electrical potential changes in smooth muscle. The somatic neuromuscular junction is held to be the paradigm synapse, so each chapter contrasts the similarities and differences between somatic and autonomic transmission.
Neuropsychiatry
‘Stress, Trauma and Synaptic Plasticity’ (2018)
This book, with J. Lagopoulos, lays the neurobiological foundation for a four volume work (published by Springer) concerned with the neuroscience of the effects of stress and trauma on the brain. It concentrates on the core neural networks in stress, detailing the molecular roles of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) and its modulation of synapses. It is shown that it is through such modulation that grey matter changes in particular parts of the brain occur.
‘Virginia Woolf and Neuropsychiatry’ (2013)
Publisher: Springer; ISBN 9789400757486
This is the second of four volumes concerned with stress, that build on the neurobiological knowledge of the brain given in the first volume to understand the origins of major depression (MDD). It does so by taking the paradigm case of the great 20th century writer Virginia Woolf, whose life was marred by MDD and psychoses that led to her suicide. The brain networks that go awry following stress and trauma which leads to MDD and psychoses are described and the molecular mechanisms that need to be put aright identified.
‘Childhood Stress, Trauma and Synapse Loss’ (2024)
Publisher: Springer; ISBN 9789819728022
This is the third of four volumes concerned with stress. It builds on the neurobiological knowledge of the brain given in the first volume to understand the extent to which childhood abuse and neglect leads to an abnormal personality, depression, impulsive behaviour and suicidality. It does so by taking as the paradigm case the childhood of an autofictional child ‘Peter’, growing up in the Australian seaside suburb of St Kilda during the Second World War and its immediate aftermath (1939-1946). This narrative provides specific examples of the kinds of stress and trauma a child might be subjected to and their consequences, such as MDD and psychoses that are commented on throughout this work. The fourth volume in this series ‘Veteran’s Stress, Trauma and Synapse Rehabilitation’ is near completion.
Founding Mental Health Institutes
Founding the Brain & Mind Research Institute (Sydney)
Given the neuroscientific research of my colleagues and myself on what goes awry in the brain of those suffering from depression and suicidality, outlined in the three volumes referred to above, and that the World Health Organization (WHO) had designated these disabilities as the major reason for years of productive life lost in the community (not ischemic heart disease), it seemed imperative to ameliorate these problems. To this end I set out in 2002 to create an interdisciplinary institute at Sydney university, consisting of neuroscientists, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, chemists and mathematicians to synergistically work outside their silos to solve these problems. This illustrated 78 page booklet describes how funds were raised and staff recruited to realize this ambitious aim.
Founding the Mind and Neuroscience – Thompson Institute (Maroochydore)
After nearly ten years as Founding Director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute (The Sydney Institute; now Centre) at Sydney University I was alerted by Mr John Mendoza of the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland to the very poor demographics there in depression (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He introduced me to the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Greg Hill, who was enthusiastic about setting up an institute like The Sydney Institute. My own enthusiasm was enhanced by the possibility of again enjoining a multidisciplinary team that would produce outcomes for the amelioration of MDD and PTSD, something I had found difficult at The Sydney Institute. This illustrated 44 page booklet describes the great good luck I had in finding a philanthropist to fund the new institute (Mr Roy Thompson) and succeeding to attract Prof Jim Lagopoulos, whom I had mentored, and who knew what was involved in synergy of a multidisciplinary team
Founding the Thompson Brain and Mind Healthcare (Maroochydore)
Twenty years of experience in both initiating and supporting mental health institutes affiliated with universities proved to me the difficulty of ensuring these provided their discoveries for the benefit of the community. Hospitals, not universities, have been bureaucratically structured to provide clinical services and carry out clinical trials of new discoveries on the brain and mind for the benefit of the community. I was then delighted when Roy and Nola Thompson, together with their advisor Dr Jim Lagopoulos, came up with the idea of a private and self-funded centre that had the raison d’etre of immediately translating the latest discoveries in brain and mind research through clinical trials to the benefit of patients. The initial gift of about $50 million has enabled the plans for the building to be crafted and accepted by the relevant authorities (tbmh.org.au). While waiting for this structure we have already opened a smaller ‘Brain and Mind Healthcare Hub’ (www.brainandmindhub.org.au) by renting a building for treating the over 1000 patients we already have. The success of this Hub suggests the establishment of further Hubs throughout the country for the assistance of those in need of mental health support. Such Hubs will eventually be linked to our principal home shown in the image and at tbmh.org.au.
Neurophilosophy
ʻThe Idea of Consciousness: Synapses and the Mindʼ (1997)
Publisher: Harwood Academic; ISBN 9057022036
In 1996 I had for thirty-five years been reading the latest research by neuroscientists (like Nobel Prize winners Jack Eccles, Francis Crick, Gerald Edelman and Torsten Wiesel) on the functioning of the brain as it relates to consciousness. Without having carried out any such research myself at that time, I decided to write-up what was known experimentally on the subject, before publishing on the philosophical analysis of consciousness. The result is this book.
'Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience' Second Edition (2023)
Publisher: Blackwell; ISBN 1 4051 0855 (with P.M.S.Hacker)
I had puzzled for many years over the conundrum that great neuroscientists like Crick and Edelman, whose work I had reviewed in The Idea of Consciousness, could claim that parts of the body, especially the brain, could remember and think, when manifestly it is we human beings that express such psychological capacities, not parts of us. This incorrect attribution had been identified by Aristotle and is known as the Mereological Fallacy. In 1998 I wrote to the eminent Oxford philosopher P.M.S.Hacker of my concerns and the outcome of our correspondence resulted in this book, first published in 2003 and in a second edition in 2023.
'Neuroscience and Philosophy : Brain, Mind and Language' (2006)
Publisher: Columbia University Press (with D.Dennett, P.Hacker, J.Searle)
Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience has now had over 3200 citations. Given this impact on the neuroscientific and philosophical communities, the premier philosophical society in the United States (the American Philosophical Association) decided to hold a symposium in which the authors of the book defended the Mereological Fallacy against it’s fiercest critics, the leading American philosophers John Searle and the now late Daniel Dennett. The arguments are set out in this book, published at the request of the director of the press.
'History of Cognitive Neuroscience' (2008)
Publisher: Wiley/Blackwell; ISBN 9781405181822 (with PMS Hacker)
The influence of the arguments concerning our psychological attributes and the Mereological Fallacy set out in Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (PFN) was considerable among philosophers. This was not the case among neuroscientists. I felt this was because the arguments had not systematically dealt with actual experimental material, especially in cognitive neuroscience. Peter Hacker and I then wrote this book that sets out the seminal experiments on each of our psychological capacities and how their interpretations have gone awry according to Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience.
‘The Representational Fallacy in Neuroscience and Psychology’ (2024)
Publisher: Springer; ISBN 9783031575587
The idea that a neuron in the brain can represent something, for example in perception a particular human’s face, has puzzled me since I first entered neuroscience and saw its free use by great researchers like Hubel and Wiesel. Whereas an artefact, such as a statute of Abraham Lincoln, is clearly identified by us as representing his form, to whom does a neuron in the brain represent? Can the firing of neurons be regarded as some kind of artefact that represents in an analogous way? In this work we conclude that neurons do not represent and the term should be dropped from neuroscience.
On Universities
‘The Search for Knowledge and Understanding’ (2019)
Publisher: Sydney University Press; ISBN 9781742104492
When I had been an academic at Sydney university for just on half a century I was invited by the Vice-Chancellor to write a history of the 20 greatest scholars, over all disciplines, that had researched there in this, Australia’s oldest university (170 years). I accepted the task with some foreboding but as I came to identify the 20 I came to enjoy the challenge immensely. The book ranges over great scholarship in history, jurisprudence, economics, philosophy, physics/engineering/astronomy, chemistry/geology, biology/epidemiology/mathematics and neuroscience/neurology/respiratory medicine. It offers a buffet of intellectual delights.
The Search for Truth: History and Future of Universities (2022)
Publisher: Sydney University Press; ISBN 9781742105208
After writing The Search for Knowledge and Understanding I was left wondering about two questions concerning contemporary universities in which I had carried out research and scholarship for over 65 years: were they essentially occupied with the search for truth as I had taken to be the case in previous centuries; further, had the neoliberal reforms of universities originally adopted in the early 1980’s by conservative governments and now by governments of a wide range of allegiances, been of benefit? This book answers these questions in the negative after considering them from both an historical and cultural point of view.