Publications
To provide a sense of Professor Brindley’s many publications, I’ve placed on this page a review written by him, the abstract of an article he helped author, a review of one of his books, and a Google Scholar search which turns up a myriad of his articles and books. There is also a brief description of his work in neuroprosthetics.
Book Reviews Der Gesichtssin. Grundzuge Der Physiologischen Optik. By W. Trendelenburg. . 2nd Edition revised by M. Monjie, I. Schmidt, and E. Schutz. Berlin, Gottingen, Heidelberg: Springer. 1961. Pp. xii +440. DM. 78.
The first edition of Trendelenburg’s “Der Gesichtssinn”, published in 1943, has long been out of print and there cannot be many copies in this country. It was an admirable compilation in which the whole of visual physiology was reviewed with great thoroughness and exceptional clarity, and in which the discussion of difficult questions was always helpful and well-balanced. The preparers of this second edition, which appears 15 years after Trelendenburg’s death, have kept the contents of the first almost intact and made additions amounting to about a quarter of the original length. The rcsulting historical perspective is excellent. The additions are as orderly as Trendelenburg’s original text, but in the reviewer’s opinion they fall far short of it in thoroughness and in the contribution that they make to resolving conflicts and interpreting obscure phenomena. Thoroughness is of course difficult to achieve in expounding a subject where the amount of new work published annually is much greater than it was when Trendelenburg wrote and the revisers can easily be forgiven for listing in the bibliography dozens of papers of which no mention is made in the text and referring in the text to several papers that are not in the bibliography. It is less easy to find excuses for the poor quality of argument in some of those new sections which draw theoretical conclusions, especially the section on quantal aspects of vision. There are also eccentricities such as a five-page section on cone pigments which gives twice as much space to the dubious old observations of von Studnitz as to the confirmed and important work of Wald, and which does not mention Rushton at all. However, some of the instances, where the weight given to German work seems to English-speaking readers surprising, may be valuable as correctives to the opposite bias often found among British and American writers. This edition is better bound and printed than the first and is excellently illustrated and well indexed. It should certainly be bought by every physiological library that has not already a copy of the first edition.
G. S. Brindley
Yohimbine In The Treatment Of Orgasmic Dysfunction by Ade A Adeniyi, Giles S Brindley, John P Pryor, David J Ralph (Asian J Androl. 2007 May ;9 (3):403-7)
Aim: To study the effect of yohimbine in the treatment of men with orgasmic dysfunction.Methods: A 20-mg dose of yohimbine was first given to 29 men with orgasmic dysfunction of different aetiology in the clinic. Patients were then allowed to increase the dose at home (titration) under more favourable circumstances. The outcome and side effects were subsequently assessed.Results: The patients were classified into three groups of orgasmic dysfunction: primary complete (13), primary incomplete (8) and secondary (8). Nocturnal emissions were present in 75%, 40% and 50% of patients in the above groups, respectively (overall average 62%). The men presented because of fertility problems (52%) or because they wanted to experience the pleasure of orgasm (48%). Of the 29 patients who completed the treatment, 16 managed to reach orgasm and were able to ejaculate either during masturbation or sexual intercourse. A further three achieved orgasm, but only with the additional stimulation of a vibrator. A history of preceding nocturnal emissions was present in 69% of the men in whom orgasm was induced but only 50% who failed treatment. Of the patients, two have subsequently fathered children (one set of twins) and another 3 men were also cured. Side effects were not sufficient to cause the men to cease treatment.
Conclusion: Yohimbine is a useful treatment option in orgasmic dysfunction.
Physiological Bases of Light and Colour Sensations Br. J. Ophthalmol. 1971;55;501-502 doi:10.1136/bjo.55.7.501-a. Physiology of the Retina and Visual Pathway. By G. S. Brindley. 2nd ed., 1970. Pp. 315, illus., bibl. Arnold, London (Monographs of the Physiological Society, No. 6).
The second edition of Professor Brindley’s book is an important event. There have been enormous advances in visual research in the last IO years, many of which are incorporated in this monograph. Half of the book is devoted to physiology and half to visual psychophysics. The new material deals mainly with photochemistry, the early receptor potential, and intracellular records from retinal cells. The central pathways of vision are treated somewhat sketchily. The most important work on the visual cortex (by Hubel and Weisel) is given three pages; the same allocation as is made elsewhere to interesting but inconclusive work on electrical phosphenes. There is little treatment of recent developments in experimental neuroanatomy, and no mention of thepsychophysics of binocular vision. Thus, as is admitted in the introduction, the coverage is idiosyncratic, but what is dealt with has authority and distinction
Sexual expression in paraplegia by G. S. Brindley and B. P. Gardner BMJ 1991;302;113
Sexual expression in paraplegia SIR,-Although we welcome the prominence given to an important subject, Dr J M Kellett’s editorial on sexual expression in paraplegia’ contains misleading elements. Lesions of the cauda equina do not “remove all except seminal emission”; men with complete lesions of the cauda equina often have fully stiff psychogenic erections.2 The efferent pathway for these erections is presumably the sympathetic erectile pathway demonstrable by stimulation of the hypogastric plexus.3 The statement that “lesions above Ti 1 allow reflex erections” is misleading, because lesions as high as T6 may abolish erections if there is descending damage below the primary lesion (as is common in spinal injuries), but complete transections as low as the L5 segment of the cord sometimes permit reflex erections if the sacral segments survive. It is unfortunate that no mention was made of fertility and parenthood. Reduced fertility in men45 and difficulties with pregnancy and delivery in women6 are vitally important sexual issues to patients with spinal cord injuries. Important recent developments in both of these have greatly improved this aspect of sexuality. G S BRINDLEY MRC Neurological Prostheses Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, London SE5 8AF
Visual Prosthetics
One of the prominent goals in neuroprosthetics is a visual supplement, noting roughly 95% of all people considered ‘blind’ suffer significant impairment but have some capability (for example, seeing some sort of blur) – only about 5% of ‘blind’ people are totally blind. By the 1940s, researchers had established the concept of artificial electrical stimulation of the visual cortex, and in the late 1960s, British scientist Giles Brindley produced breakthrough findings with a system for placing electrodes on the brain’s surface. When specific areas of the brain were stimulated in blind volunteers, all reported “seeing” phosphenes that corresponded to where they would have appeared in space. However, experiments were discontinued because of the uncomfortably high currents required for stimulation on the surface of the brain.
