Neuroanatomy History

The first known written record of a study of the anatomy of the human brain is an ancient Egyptian document, the Edwin Smith Papyrus which described the “spillage of clear fluid from the interior of the brain“.

In Ancient Greece, interest in the brain began with the work of Alcmaeon of Croton, who appeared to have dissected the eye and related the brain to vision. He also suggested that the brain, not the heart, was the organ that ruled the body (what Stoics would call the hegemonikon) and that the senses were dependent on the brain.

The debate regarding the hegemonikon persisted among ancient Greek philosophers and physicians for a very long time.

Those who argued for the brain often contributed to the understanding of neuroanatomy as well.

Herophilos and Erasistratus of Alexandria were perhaps the most influential with their studies involving dissecting human brains, affirming the distinction between the cerebrum and the cerebellum, and identifying the ventricles and the dura mater.

The Greek physician and philosopher Galen, likewise, argued strongly for the brain as the organ responsible for sensation and voluntary motion, as evidenced by his research on the neuroanatomy of oxen, Barbary apes, and other animals.

The cultural taboo on human dissection continued for several hundred years afterward, which brought no major progress in the understanding of the anatomy of the brain or of the nervous system. However, Pope Sixtus IV effectively revitalized the study of neuroanatomy by altering the papal policy and allowing human dissection. This resulted in a flush of new activity by artists and scientists of the Renaissance,[7] such as Mondino de Luzzi, Berengario da Carpi, and Jacques Dubois, and culminating in the work of Andreas Vesalius.

In 1664, Thomas Willis, a physician and professor at Oxford University, coined the term neurology when he published his text Cerebri Anatome which is considered the foundation of modern neuroanatomy.[10] The subsequent three hundred and fifty some years has produced a great deal of documentation and study of the neural system.