Cerebral localization of the mind and higher functions The beginnings

Abstract

The debates about the mind and its higher functions, and attempts to locate them in the body, have represented a subject of interest of innumerable sages since ancient times. The doubt concerning the part of the body that housed these functions, the heart (cardiocentric doctrine) or the brain (cephalocentric doctrine), drove the search. The Egyptians, millennia ago, held a cardiocentric view. A very long time later, ancient Greek scholars took up the theme anew, but remained undecided between the heart and the brain, a controversy that lasted for centuries. The cephalocentric view prevailed, and a new inquiry ensued about the location of these functions within the brain, the ventricles or the nervous tissue, which also continued for centuries. The latter localization, although initially inaccurate, gained traction. However, it represented only a beginning, as further studies in the centuries that followed revealed more precise definitions and localizations of the higher mental functions.

The Lateral Ventricles: A Detailed Review of Anatomy, Development, and Anatomic Variations

“…T he cerebral ventricles were the center of attention among philosophers, priests, anatomists, and physicians as far back as Aristotle in the fourth century BC. 1 They were originally thought to harbor the soul and "vital" spirits responsible for higher functions. After the influence of Christianity and the Renaissance, the ventricles were conceptualized as 3 cavities where common sense, creative imagination, and memory were individually allocated.…”

Cerebral localization of higher functions: Memory-related anatomic structures

“…Thus, Empedocles, Democritus, Aristotle, Diocles, Praxagoras favoured the heart, whereas Alcmaeon, Pythagoras, Plato, Herophilus, Erasistratus, Rufus, and Galen chose the brain. [1][2][3] Finally, the brain prevailed. The description of the ventricles in the human brain by Herophilus and Erasistratus (IV-III century BC) created a place to locate the soul and mind.…”

“…390 AD) located the functions of the human mind -senses, reasoning, and memory -in these different ventricles, proposing the "doctrine of ventricular localization of mental function" (possibly around the end of the IV century AD [first translation published in 1538]). [2][3][4] This view, in a descriptive manner, prevailed for many centuries, being expanded by Albertus Magnus (ca. 1193-1280), whose book illustrated the cerebral cavities (ventricles) schematically, apparently for the first time (1506, chapter XIIIposthumous release).…”

“…1193-1280), whose book illustrated the cerebral cavities (ventricles) schematically, apparently for the first time (1506, chapter XIIIposthumous release). 3,[5][6][7] Nemesius, Albertus and other authors of their time who localized the mind and its faculties within these cavities placed memory in the posterior ventricle (cer-Engelhardt ebellar ventricle) (4 th ventricle), where it remained until the XVII century (Renaissance). At this point, the faculties were understood to be in the solid parts of the cerebrum, as proposed by Johannes Jakob Wepfer (1658), and a short time later by Thomas Willis (1664).…”

“…At this point, the faculties were understood to be in the solid parts of the cerebrum, as proposed by Johannes Jakob Wepfer (1658), and a short time later by Thomas Willis (1664). 3 During the entire Middle Ages (V-XIV century) the ventricles remained the center of the theories relating mind and brain, with the latter housing the faculty of memory. 2,6 The long preceding period of these initial localization theories gave way to a phase of modern, more concrete and scientifically-based facts, in a bid to relate memory failure (amnesia) to solid brain structures, which took place mainly in the XIX century, extending into the XX century (late Modern period).…”