Letter to the editor and authors' response: Reaction to Abi-Rached JM (2012): From Brain to neuro: The Brain research association and the making of British Neuroscience, 1965-1996. Journal of the history of the neurosciences 21:189-213)

摘要

We have read the article by Joelle M. Abi-Rached (2012) on "From Brain to Neuro: The Brain Research Association and the Making of British Neuroscience, 1965-1996" with interest but concern at the number and the nature of historical inaccuracies and omissions it contains, which need to be rectified.Against a background of discussion about what is and who initiated the term "neuroscience," a main theme of the article is that, contrary to official documentation, Derek Richter (1907-1995) "was in no way" the initiator or founder of the British Brain Research Association (BRA). Instead the BRA was the natural extension of the agenda of the London-based group of neuroscientists who met informally in a pub known as the Black Horse for multidisciplinary discussions approximately monthly between 1965 and 1968, that is, until the foundation of the BRA, which later in 1996 became the British Neuroscience Association (BNA). This suggested revision of history is incorrect, as we can confirm, as, unlike the author, we were both active in British Neuroscience in the 1960s. Indeed one of us, RB, is one of four acknowledged founding members of the Black Horse group, served on the Council of BRA and was also a full-time member of Richter's Medical Research Council Neuropsychiatry Research Unit (MRC NRU) from 1957 until its closure in 1971 on the formal retirement of its director at the age of 65 years.