CGS Exam 1: L2 History of Brain Science

Alcmeaon (Croton, Sicily) 450 BC

• 1st neuroscientist

• Brain = seat of perception + cognition 

• Anatomical dissection

• Optic nerve: eye to brain connection + light bearing paths

• Physical manipulation of eye: phosphenes (perceptions of flashes of light, colors, geometric shapes in vision when no actual light is entering eye)

Hippocrates (Cos, Mediterranean) 452 BC

• Physician 

• Scientific approach to medicine

• Epilepsy → “sacred” disease, NOT possession by devil (common belief of time)

Aristotle 450 BC

• Philosopher

• Leading biologist of his time

• Founder of comparative anatomy (comparing anatomy of different animals)

• Founder of embryology (what a fetus looks like in different animals)

• Conducted systematic study of animal behavior 

• Dissected lots of animals but not a human 

• ERROR: concluded that human heart NOT brain controls sensation 

• heart = sensitive, brain = not sensitive 

Galen (Pergamon) 129-199 AD

• 1st accurate detailed anatomy of brain (ox v humans)

• Learned how pigs vocalize via lesion experiments, discovering laryngeal nerve

• ERROR (long lasting): soul/mind located in ventricles of brain - “psychic pneuma” (animal spirit that powers the brain)

• “SOUL - should not be material substance”

Andreas Vesalius of Padua 1514-1564

• Greatest renaissance anatomist 

• Methods: dissected human body + brain

• Claims: ventricles not seat of soul + mind

• Reason: animals have ventricles too 

Leonardo da Vinci

studied proportions

Thomas Willis

wrote Cerebri Anatome (landmark foundational text on brain anatomy and the nervous system

Descartes 1662: tackled mind-body problem

• We are conscious and this consciousness transcends the physical implementation in the body

• Soul = in pineal gland (only part that is truly central + not duplicated in both hemispheres)

Phrenology: you can figure out how someone is like based on bumps on skull/shapes of skull 

• Founded by Franz Josef Gall and J. C. Suprzheim

• Methods: examined skulls (insane + criminals to intelligent + accomplished)

Broca 1824-1880

• Confirmed some localization of function in the brain 

• Patient Louis Victor Leborgne: progressive loss of speech over 21 years, “tan” only word he could say 

• Autopsy: left frontal lobe damage

• Broca’s aphasia: cannot speak, but can understand