A historical overview
The Reverend Dr. David CM Taylor
dcmt@liverpool.ac.ukThis page is © David Taylor and The University of Liverpool, 1999
Our ideas of brain function have altered down the years and many people would contend that they are crucially dependent upon our view of technology.
The Greeks and Egyptians despised the brain, believing the heart to be the source of all understanding and feeling, the brain was there to cool the blood. This was the subject of an interesting conflict between Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) and his mentor Plato (c.380 B.C.E.). On the basis of reason and logic, Plato considered that the brain (being almost spherical) was the probable source of the intellect. Aristotle, on the basis of careful experimentation and observation believed that the brain was there to cool the blood.
Brain Structure
Galen (130 - 200 C.E.) was the first to recognise the importance of the structure of the brain. But he thought that the spaces between the jelly-like substance- the ventricles - were the important bit.
So did
Leonardo da Vinci (1506) - who made and drew wax casts of the ventricles
Paracelsus and Robert Fludd (1621) - who produced woodcuttings which ascribed functions to the different ventricles
Descartes (1637) thought that the brain worked on hydraulic principles, which were "high tech" in his day. The most enjoyeable overview of this area has been produced by Professor Blakemore in his early book "Mechanisms of the Mind"
Ventricles to Matrix
In more recent years the emphasis has shifted from the hollow spaces within the brain to the tissue from which the brain is constructed. There are clear diagrams concerning somatotopy and mapping of sensation over the surface of the brain. They are to be found in any textbook of physiology.
It is important to remember that the pictures are all idealised. Given what we know of the phenomenon of plasticity it is not surprising that we do not see rigidly defined maps. If you want to know more about plasticity, then Carpenter and Kandel both refer to it. The best monograph on the subject that I have read is by Purves Body and Brain (1990) Harvard.