Neurobiology I – Bio 334
Suhita Nadkarni (suhita@iiserpune.ac.in)
Raghav Rajan (raghav@iiserpune.ac.in)
Monday – 10:30 – 11:25 am
Thursday – 2:30 – 3:25pm
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
1
What is neurobiology?
• Scientific study of the nervous system
(Wikipedia)
• Many different sub-areas and subcategories
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Why study neurobiology?
Men ought to know that from the brain, and
from the brain only, arise our pleasures, joy,
laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows,
pains, griefs and tears
- Hippocrates (400 BC)
If our brains were simple enough for us to
understand them, we’d be so simple that we
couldn’t
- Ian Stewart (mathematician)
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
3
History of Neuroscience
• Gives an interesting perspective
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Early neurosurgery - Trephination or
Trepannation – as early as 6500 BC
• Skulls
discovered in
France had
holes in them
(about 40/120)
• To treat
injuries,
migraines,
epilepsy, etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Ancient Egyptians did not consider the
brain important
• Yet, early references to the brain by
them in 1700 B.C.
• Possibly by Imhotep (Mummy fame!),
great Egyptian surgeon
• References in the Edwin-Smith surgical
papyrus of patients
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/papy.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Case 6: A gaping wound in the head, fracture of the skull
and opening of the meninges. This case describes the:
1.Convolutions of the brain - the author of the papyrus
describes these "like those corrugations which form molten
copper." This most likely refers to the wrinkled appearance
of the brain created by the gyri and sulci of the brain.
"Corrugations" of the Brain
2.Meninges (coverings of the brain) - described as the
membrane enveloping the brain.
"Membrane" enveloping the Brain
3.Cerebrospinal fluid - described as the fluid in the interior
of the head.
"Fluid" in the Interior of the Head
Case 6 was
01st August 2013
"An ailment not to be treated."
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/papy.html
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
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Neuroscience
Ancient Greeks divided in their opinion
• Mind-body dualism
• The mind and body are separate
• What is mind? No matter. What is matter?
Never mind.
– George Berkeley (Irish philosopher)
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Brain or cephalocentric hypothesis
started around ~550 B.C.
• Pythagorus, Alcmaeon of Croton
• Studied vision
• Concluded that the eyes are light bearing
paths to the brain
• Eyes have light (phospenes) and water
(dissection)
http://schatz.sju.edu/neuro/nphistory/nphistory.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Hippocrates – theory of humors
• Human beings have a soul and a body
• Body made up of 4 substances or humors
• Balance of the humors is important for good
health
http://www.hormones.gr/17/article/article.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Hippocrates like Alcmaeon believed the
brain to be the seat of intelligence
• Seat of intelligence
• Controller of senses, emotion,
movement, etc…. (the works)
• Correctly diagnosed epilepsy, etc. as
disorders of the brain
• Also recognised that paralysis occurred on
the side opposite to the side with damage
http://www.princeton.edu/~cggross/Neuroscientist_95-1.pdf
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Aristotle turns the clock back – “learning
by heart”
• Heart is the seat of intelligence
• Brain, lungs are all for cooling the
heart
• REASONS
– Heart develops first
– Is present in all organisms
– Is connected to all senses
http://www.princeton.edu/~cggross/Neuroscientist_95-1.pdf
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Galen – puts us back on course
• Very interesting observations
• Sensory fibres – softer – for sensory
experience
• Motor fibres - firmer – for action
• Similarly – cerebrum is soft and so is
sensory
• Cerebellum – hard – must control motor
function
• Cerebrum – soft, can be moulded – must
therefore store memories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galen
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n16/history/mind-history_i.html
• Three lefts make a right and A few
wrongs can also make a right!
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Brain and nerves – part of a larger plumbing
system controlled by the pineal gland
• Animal spirit
(liquid + air)
• Brain a large clot
of phlegm
• Described
ventricles in great
detail
http://bertie.ccsu.edu/naturesci/Evolution/Unit10Background/GalenPhysio.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Cell doctrine – ventricles and intelligence
• Nemesius and St.
Augustine (130 – 200
A.D.)
• Anterior ventricle –
“common sense”
• Middle ventricle –
action
• Posterior ventricle memory
http://schatz.sju.edu/neuro/nphistory/nphistory.html
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n16/history/mind-history_i.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Andreas Vesalius, using anatomy
discredited the ventricular theory
• Other
mammals like
the ass have
the same
organisation
• Ventricles
store animal
spirits
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n16/history/mind-history_i.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Descartes – Pineal gland controls all the
plumbing
• Small filaments that
can be controlled by
external stimuli
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n16/history/mind-history_i.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Pineal gland controls sleep and waking by
controlling the flow of animal spirits
http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n16/history/mind-history_i.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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A lot of careful anatomy, observations of
white matter, gray matter, etc.
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Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Luigi Galvani - bioelectricity
http://electricityrit.blogspot.in/2783/02/frog-legs-galvanis-research-into.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Galvani
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
01st August 2013
Neuroscience
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Localization of function within the brain Phrenology
• Frafz Josef Gall
• Bumps on the head related to various functions
http://www.phrenology.com/franzjosephgall.html
http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2004/phrenology.htm
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Purkinje cells – described by Purkinje
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Purkinje
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purkinje_cell
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Flourens – uniform function throughout
brain
• Through ablations suggested that the
whole brain was equivalent
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/1010/mangels/neuro/history/history.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Broca – localized function returns
Wernicke supports idea
• Broca’s aphasia – patient could only say
“Tan”
• Wernicke’s aphasia – patient spoke
nonsense
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/1010/mangels/neuro/history/history.html
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Localization set in stone – Broadmann
areas
http://www.appliedneuroscience.com/Brodmann_Areas.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korbinian_Brodmann
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Golgi and Cajal – the neuron doctrine –
Nobel prize in 1906
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camillo_Golgi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santiago_Ram%C3%B3n_y_Cajal
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Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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Penfield – homunculus – Grandmother cell
01st August 2013
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/psychology/courses/1010/mangels/neuro/history/history.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilder_Penfield
http://teddysratlab.blogspot.in/2011/07/curious-things-we-learned-from-epilepsy.html
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
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Neuroscience
And now – Karl Deisseroth – optogenetics
Science fiction becomes reality
01st August 2013
Bio 334 - Lecture 1 - History of
Neuroscience
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