The Historical Input for Brain Research
1.1 Ancient Times
In 1862, collector Edwin Smith purchased an ancient Eyptian papyrus scroll (c.a 1700BCE, however it was
probably a transcription of an even older text dated approximately 3000BCE) in the city of Luxor. Its
content left the medical and scientific community perplexed: it documented 48 cases of head and neck
injury ; specifically Case 6 represents the earliest description of the exterior of the human brain, while
Case 8 reads about a deviation of the eyes and motor difficulties in the legs following a brain injury.
The Edwin Smith's papyrus demonstrated how Egyptian physicians treating wounded soldiers had
already comprehended the importance of the brain in movement and behavior.
However, that doesn't imply that that knowledge was widespread. The majority of ancient Egyptian
scholars were convinced that the seat of the soul was the heart.
The debate on whether the soul resided in the heart or in the brain continued in Ancient Greece.
Hippocrates can be considered a cerebrocentric, as well as Plato.
According to Plato, the soul was divided into three parts:
1. The highest part, divine and immortal, was responsible for reasoning and it was therefore located in
the brain;
2. The second part, mortal, dealt with sensation and it resided in the heart.
(In this specific interpretation, the neck served the function of dividing the mortal soul from the divine one).
, 3. The lowest part dealt with appetite and was placed in the liver.
On the contrary, Aristotle firmly believed the heart was the seat of the soul. The brain was simply a
cold, rational counterpart whose purpose was to balance the heat and passion of the heart; together
they formed a functional unit.
1.2 Galen
It was six centuries after Aristotle that Galen began experimenting on animals. In one of his
experiments, he notice that a pig stopped squealing, but kept breathing, after he severed the nerves in its
throat, demonstrating that the voice came from the brain not the heart.
Another problem he had to address was ' How does the brain communicate with the rest of the body?'.
Unlike the heart, which was connected through veins and blood, the brain's only mean of
communication were white cables (nerves) which were anyways assumed to be hollow.
In line with the previous thinkers, Galen thought the brain was fundamental for the soul. He arrived to
the conclusion that the soul lived in the solid parts and produced and stored animal spirits in the central
aperture of the brain, called the 'ventricles'.
During the Middle Ages, brain research completely halted and only really resumed around the
nineteenth-century. Below follows a list of the few discoveries made during that era.
1.3 The Renaissance
During that time, Andreas Vesaliu s resumed brain dissection and extended his research to humans.
He then differentiated three types of ventricles, each with its own unique function;
1. The first ventricle (frontal) responsible for the perception of senses, and thus 'common sense' (also
includes fantasy and immagination);
2. The second ventricle (central) was responsible for thought and judgement;
3. The last ventricle (posterior) was responsible for memory
1.4 The Seventeenth-Century
In the seventeenth-century, investigators began to pay attention to the difference between the outer
layer of the brain (rind or cortex), which had a grey-ish look to it, and the inner layer (white matter)
which was instead white. In 1664, Thomas Willis published his 'Cerebro Anatome' where he explored
the possibility that the grey matter was involved in the functions of memory.
Another topic that they particularly interested research was the insight that the body displays certain
automatic behaviours in response to external physical stimuli.
1.1 Ancient Times
In 1862, collector Edwin Smith purchased an ancient Eyptian papyrus scroll (c.a 1700BCE, however it was
probably a transcription of an even older text dated approximately 3000BCE) in the city of Luxor. Its
content left the medical and scientific community perplexed: it documented 48 cases of head and neck
injury ; specifically Case 6 represents the earliest description of the exterior of the human brain, while
Case 8 reads about a deviation of the eyes and motor difficulties in the legs following a brain injury.
The Edwin Smith's papyrus demonstrated how Egyptian physicians treating wounded soldiers had
already comprehended the importance of the brain in movement and behavior.
However, that doesn't imply that that knowledge was widespread. The majority of ancient Egyptian
scholars were convinced that the seat of the soul was the heart.
The debate on whether the soul resided in the heart or in the brain continued in Ancient Greece.
Hippocrates can be considered a cerebrocentric, as well as Plato.
According to Plato, the soul was divided into three parts:
1. The highest part, divine and immortal, was responsible for reasoning and it was therefore located in
the brain;
2. The second part, mortal, dealt with sensation and it resided in the heart.
(In this specific interpretation, the neck served the function of dividing the mortal soul from the divine one).
, 3. The lowest part dealt with appetite and was placed in the liver.
On the contrary, Aristotle firmly believed the heart was the seat of the soul. The brain was simply a
cold, rational counterpart whose purpose was to balance the heat and passion of the heart; together
they formed a functional unit.
1.2 Galen
It was six centuries after Aristotle that Galen began experimenting on animals. In one of his
experiments, he notice that a pig stopped squealing, but kept breathing, after he severed the nerves in its
throat, demonstrating that the voice came from the brain not the heart.
Another problem he had to address was ' How does the brain communicate with the rest of the body?'.
Unlike the heart, which was connected through veins and blood, the brain's only mean of
communication were white cables (nerves) which were anyways assumed to be hollow.
In line with the previous thinkers, Galen thought the brain was fundamental for the soul. He arrived to
the conclusion that the soul lived in the solid parts and produced and stored animal spirits in the central
aperture of the brain, called the 'ventricles'.
During the Middle Ages, brain research completely halted and only really resumed around the
nineteenth-century. Below follows a list of the few discoveries made during that era.
1.3 The Renaissance
During that time, Andreas Vesaliu s resumed brain dissection and extended his research to humans.
He then differentiated three types of ventricles, each with its own unique function;
1. The first ventricle (frontal) responsible for the perception of senses, and thus 'common sense' (also
includes fantasy and immagination);
2. The second ventricle (central) was responsible for thought and judgement;
3. The last ventricle (posterior) was responsible for memory
1.4 The Seventeenth-Century
In the seventeenth-century, investigators began to pay attention to the difference between the outer
layer of the brain (rind or cortex), which had a grey-ish look to it, and the inner layer (white matter)
which was instead white. In 1664, Thomas Willis published his 'Cerebro Anatome' where he explored
the possibility that the grey matter was involved in the functions of memory.
Another topic that they particularly interested research was the insight that the body displays certain
automatic behaviours in response to external physical stimuli.
