Lecture 1 - History Flashcards
(38 cards)
Trephination
Verona and Williams (1992, unpubl.) found, based on 750 skulls:
most skulls were male (a few women & children were included)
no left or right side predominance
primarily frontal and upper parietal, and associated with fractures and blows to the head
trephination still used today to relieve pressure, remove bone fragments, and evacuate bleedings
Edwin Smith Papyrus
Bought by Smith in Egypt in 1862, translated by Dr James Breasted in 1930.
Oldest surgical treatise known, it is a copy of a text originally 3000-2500 years old.
It presents 48 cases, of which 27 concern head injuries
Trephination is not mentioned.
It is the first time the word “brain” is referred to.
First reference to cranial sutures, meninges, CSF, and intracranial pulsations. First accounts of surgical stitching and dressings. Brain injuries linked with changes in functioning of other body parts.
James Breasted
Translated the Edwin Smith Papyrus
Pythagoras
Postulated that brain was center of reasoning
Hippocrates
Brain controls all sense and movement
Emotions arise in the brain
Provided early descriptin of epilepsy
Artistotle
Cardiocentric hypothesis - the heart controls mental processes because - the heart is warm, the brain is a radiator to cool the heart, the heart responds when excited
Galen
refuted Artistotle
did experiments to show pressure on the brain led to cessation of movement
all physical function based on 4 humors (blood, black bile, yellow bile, mucus/phlegm)
Ventricular hypothesis
fluid in the ventricles, not brain tissue, is responsible for mental processes
anterior ventricles control sensation and perception
third ventricles control intelligence and reason
the fourth ventricle controls memory
Originated with the Alexandrian school in Egypt around 300 AD (see Benton, 2000).
Leonardo’s Error
his view of the brain was 1200 years old
Andreas Vesalius
studied anatomy solely for structure, poor illustration of brain convolutions
Rene Descartes
Proposed that mind and body are separate, but interact in the pineal gland.
Mechanistic view of functioning based on mechanical statues at the Royal Gardens at St. Germain.
Developed early concept of the reflex.
Crticized by Damasio for mind / body distinction, and “Cogito, ergo sum”.
Monism vs. dualism
Monists: mind and body are the same thing - either both material or both non-material
Dualists: Mind and body are different.
The mind/body problem: How can a non-material mind produce movements in a material body?
Hydraulic model
Descartes: The mind acts through the pineal gland. Eyes send information to the brain, where it is examined by the soul and which takes action by tilting the pineal gland (like a joystick) to divert pressurized fluid through the nerves to move the appropriate muscles.
Thomas Willis
English anatomist who provided detailed drawings of the circulatory system of the brain. The Circle of Willis is named after him.
Franz Gall
With Sputzheim - phrenology
Lectured on cranioscopy,
Theory originated with “observation” that students with prominent eyes had good memory.
Cranial prominences (bumps in skull) reflected well-developed areas of underlying cerebrum.
Posited 27 mental faculties, thought to be innate and fixed.
Studied murderers and sadists to find consistent “bumps”; tended to look for confirmatory evidence.
Forced by imperial edict to leave in 1805; settled in Paris in 1807. Published important neuroanatomical work in 1810 with his assistant and later colleague, Johan
Spurtzheim, who coined the term phrenology.
Phrenology
brain is an organ of the ming, mental and moral faculties located in specific areas of surface so that surfeit/deficiencies can be detected by examining the cranium
Empirical attempt to correlate variation in faculties (defined in terms of everyday activities) with objective observation of variation in brain structure.
Located language in the ventrolateral frontal lobe, but also “amativeness” in the cerebellum (based on single patient, “The Passionate Widow”).
Phrenology became highly popular; a book by the English MD and phrenologist George Coombs was one of the four best sellers of the 18th century (together with the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Gulliver’s Travels). [For Coombe’s Elements of Phrenology online - not his bestseller- go to www.infobahnos.com~pfriesen/combe1.htm].
Pierre Flourens
Sharp critic of Gall.
Dedicated a book to Descartes; believed that consciousness was unitary.
Preliminary statement, later elaborated by Lashley, that cortical tissue is equipotential, or able to take over the function of tissue that gets damaged.
Used ablation method to “prove” that damage to the cerebellum (Gall’s center of amativeness) did not affect sexual behavior in chickens and pigeons.
Distinguished motor control from motor coordination (which he located in the cerebellum).
Criticisms: Espoused a “faculty psychology” which distinguished sensation from perception, with sensory-motor functions localized to sub-cortical structures, but with perception, volition, and intellect operating together in unison and spread throughout the cerebrum.
Since his experiments using ablation were rather crude, his animals often failed to survive. Thus they were often still in post-traumatic shock and their brains swollen with edema when tested.
Flourens did not address personality or higher cognitive functions.
Jean Baptiste Bouillaud
physician and founding member of a phrenological society,
read a paper to the Royal Academy of Medicine in France in 1825, based on 8 cases,
argued in support of Gall that the left hemisphere controls the right hand for writing, fencing, and drawing, so why not also language and speech movements?
Marc Dax
read paper in 1836 in Montpellier presenting cases of speech disorders associated with left hemisphere lesions. Published by his son in 1865.
Ernst Auburtin
son-in-law of Bouillaud) presented in 1861 to the Anthropology Society (established by Broca) two cases of speech disorder which he argued were due to pressure to /softening of the frontal lobes. Challenged others to find a single case of speech loss without a frontal lesion.
Paul Broca
Attended lecture by Auburtin, took up his challenge when a hemiplegic patient on his ward (Leborgne), who could only say “Tan”, died the next week.
On autopsy Broca found a lesion in the posterior third convolution of the left frontal lobe. He published his findings within a week (later confirmed with a second subject) in the Bulletins de la societe anatomique de Paris in 1861.
Brain studied was that of Louis Leborgne
Broca’s area
Broca’s area or the Broca area /broʊˈkɑː/ or /ˈbroʊkə/ is a region in the frontal lobe of the dominant hemisphere (usually the left) of the hominid brain[1] with functions linked to speech production.
Theodor von Meynert
Detailed anatomist, specialized in auditory cortex (temporal lobe), and teacher of Wernicke (among others)
First to actually describe case of language comprehension deficit and localize it with autopsy case to the superior temporal gyrus
Carl Wernicke
Associate of Thomas Meynert (who tracked auditory pathways to temporal cortex).
Published “The Symptom Complex of Aphasia: A Psychological Study on an Anatomical Basis” in 1874 (age 26).
Formulated theory to reconcile discrete localized cortical centers (Gall/Broca) on the one hand, and homogeneous distribution of mental functions, on the other, with connectionist theory (precursor to network theory).
Connectionist, Distributed Processing Model
Separate motor and sensory regions
Arcuate fasciculus as connection pathway