Blood, Phlegm and Spirits: Galen on Stroke

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.

Section: The Seat Of the Mind: Heart Or Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…430 BC], or earlier), 27 and “bodily humors” (blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm), played a fundamental role in health and disease. 5 , 28 …”

Section: The Seat Of the Mind: Heart Or Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Seat Of the Mind: Heart Or Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Seat Of the Mind: Heart Or Brainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…He accepted the manner of spirit grouping and formation proposed by Erasistratus, and developed it further ( Box ). 2 , 5 , 7 , 10 , 11…”

Section: Ventricular Localizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Cerebral localization of the mind and higher functions The beginnings

Engelhardt

2018

Apoplexy, cerebrovascular disease, and stroke: Historical evolution of terms and definitions

Engelhardt¹

2017

ABSTRACT.The long-standing concept of “apoplexy' can be followed from Antiquity, passing through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and reaching the Modern era and the present day, with the new designation of “stroke”. The definition of “apoplexy” can be divided, by the history of autopsy, into a period predating this practice, which spanned from Antiquity until the Renaissance, with a relatively stable clinically-based umbrella concept, and an autopsy period of the Modern era, when the condition was subdivided into several subtypes. Thus, it took about 2,500 years assembling the numerous pieces of information to achieve a fairly well-defined picture. The “stroke” concept inherited the information developed for “apoplexy”, incorporating all historical acquisitions to form the current state of this knowledge.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms in brain diseases - historical foundations

Engelhardt

Sudo

Alves

et al. 2020

ABSTRACT. Neuropsychiatric symptoms, which may appear alone or combined with cognitive and neurological manifestations, are frequent in many brain dysfunctions or lesions due to vascular, traumatic, neurodegenerative, or systemic conditions. Throughout history, many of the most prominent names have contributed to the clinical definition of the currently recognized mental symptoms and syndromes. The present paper aims at providing a comprehensive overview of the development, from ancient to modern times, of some widely known concepts and constructs about such neuropsychiatric disorders.