Historical causes and map visualizations in biology

This dissertation consists of two interwoven studies, one historical and one philosophical. The historical study attempts to reconstruct the diverse causes shaping a line of investigation in neuroscience. The philosophical study examines map visualizations in biology.;Part I of the dissertation presents a historical account of the investigation of the representation of the body in the "primary" somatosensory cortex conducted by a group of investigators at Johns Hopkins University (Philip Bard, Wade Marshall, and Clinton Woolsey from 1937 to 1942). The historical study continues with one of the groups' member's subsequent reanalysis of the work (Woolsey from 1942 to 1958).;The historical causes considered are (1) the organization of the brain, (2) the experimental techniques, (3) the concepts used, (4) the investigators' pre-existing views, (5) their visualizations of the data, and (6) the investigators' social interactions. In addition to the historical study, an examination of this work in light of the contemporary understanding of brain organization sheds additional light on causes. The historical investigation is confined to part I.;The philosophical study of maps begins in part I with a commentary on the debate surrounding Sewall Wright's adaptive landscape and a combined discussion of informational design of all the images in part I.;Part II supplements the study of informational design with two additional philosophical reflections on biological visualizations: (1) an examination of the dissertation's illustrations in terms of the limits of visualization, and (2) a consideration of Laura Perini's use of Nelson Goodman's formal properties of symbol systems to classify scientific images.