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Updated: Jul 9, 2025

Microdissection of Mouse Brain into Functionally and Anatomically Different Regions
Published on: February 15, 2021
Why an animal needs a brain
Peter Sterling1, Simon Laughlin2
1Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. psterlin@gmail.com.
Abstract:
In Principles of Neural Design (2015, MIT Press), inspired by Charles Darwin, Sterling and Laughlin undertook the unfashionable task of distilling principles from facts in the technique-driven, data-saturated domain of neuroscience. Their starting point for deriving the organizing principles of brains are two brainless single-celled organisms, Escherichia coli and Paramecium, and the 302-neuron brain of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The book is an exemplar in how to connect the dots between simpler and (much) more complex organisms in a particular area. Here, they have generously agreed to republish an abridged version of Chapter 2 (Why an Animal Needs a Brain), in which many of their principles are first described.
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