In 1992, Dr. Gerald Edelman joined the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic faculty (TSRI). In addition to his positions at TSRI, Edelman was director of The Neurosciences Institute and president of the Neurosciences Research Foundation.

Over more than three decades, Edelman formulated a detailed theory to explain the development and organization of higher brain functions, first presenting the process, known as neuronal group selection (TNGS), in the monograph, The Mindful Brain (coauthored by Vernon Mountcastle), and then in, in his book Neural Darwinism (1987).