How do you track a thought, diagram an emotion, sketch the path of a memory? For as long as humans have tried to understand the mind, we've grappled with such questions. Now in a remarkable new book from Abrams, author Carl Schoonover showcases our species' tenacious attempts to make images of the brain in order to understand ourselves. The image-rich book, titled Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain From Antiquity to the 21st Century, shows the beautiful results of that quest.

"Prod the delicate matter in the head in the appropriate manner, and it just might reveal a small but important flash of insight, a clue among countless other clues," Schoonover writes in the preface. "Prod by prod, glimpse by glimpse, we can begin to form theories about brain structure and function; thus, the history of neuroscience is the history of the techniques we employ to delve into the brain." The book ranges from the earliest cell-staining techniques to the high-tech methods that yield today's "brainbows" and intricate maps of neural architecture. Here we present a sampling of our favorite portraits.