This is a well-rounded lecture summary of "A history of the brain” lecture in the First Teaching Block in the Brain and Behaviour module, Year 1.
The collection of notes form both the slides provided before the lecture and the actual lecture. It contains all the key points necessary in the ex...
1. A history of the brain
1. The trial of Galileo – trial for his knowledge - the sun is the center not the earth
o The mind – a challenge to Orthodoxy
o We use the “mind” in everyday life
2. Ancient Egyptians – Imhotep – doctor who studied people with brain damage - he looked at the
effects / consequences on behaviour –first “neurologist”
o They didn’t have any idea about the importance of the brain
o They didn’t preserve the brain – thought it was unimportant for the afterlife
3. Plato: 1. Cogito (logos-higher thinking) 2. Thymos (emotion) 3. Eros (love)
o Psyche – story of how she became a God
4. Aristotle – the soul is immaterial
o The brain is cooling the blood -> dominant
o The soul is in the body – located in the heart (centrally - first organ to develop) -> when we die, the
soul remains, body decays => not part of the body - independent
5. Hippocrates – materialism - father of medicine -> the brain is the centre of all
6. Galen – dissections of animals (nerves are controlling the body) – treated brain injuries in soldiers –
fluid cavities (ventricles) = humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile-to be emotional, black bile-
anger)
7. Leonardo DaVinci – The Renaissance - painted brain images – not accurate but highlighted
different localization and functions -> influenced by Galen’s thinking -> focus on ventricles
o Localization of function -> different parts of the brain doing different things
- lateral ventricles – census commonness – census is common = common sense
- 3rd bench-cognition = real thinking
- 4th ventricle = memory
we know now that those ventricles don’t have any role in the kind of processing that’s
important for the mind – they have other functions
8. Michelangelo – “Birth of Adam” -> looks like a brain –> he knew the importance of the brain
9. Henry Moore – no relationship between the mind and the brain – the brain doesn’t have any
capacity for thoughts or motives
10. Descartes-dualism – mind & body unity – the pineal gland is the centre (she communicates with the
other muscles by sending fluid down – Galen influenced )
o Mental illness = a disconnection between mind and brain
o West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum – outside Leeds -> very important British neurologist
o Children and animals do not have a mind
o Pineal gland – doesn’t really affect higher cognitive thought
- Important however for sleep wayside cycles and Melanin
11. Thomas Willis – father of neuroscience – “Cerebrally Anatomy” - first clear images of the brain
o Described different parts of the brain, labelling each of them and attributing different functions
- corpus callosus – cognition;
- corpus striatum – common sense, the coming together of the sensors, common nets;
- central cortex – memory
12. France Gall – phrenology + localization of function – influences the skull - low
level of society
13. Bonaparte – he thought he was a genius – had brain scans – disappointed
14. Pierre Flourens – experiments with pigeons - Is it the way I make the damage or
the size that influences brain damage? – answer: the size because the brain works
as a whole; we don’t have localisations – distributed processing
15. Paul Broca – brain lesions reveal distinct behavioural deficits -
Phineas Gage – man who lost part of his brain -> no more equilibrium
between his intellectual and animal instincts
16. Golgi– Golgi stains? -> images of 20% of brain’s neurons – everything
is connected together
17. Cajal – the neuron doctrine = made up of individual numerous cells
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