History of neuroscience

• Alcmeaon of Croton


  • 5th century
  • the brain was the organ of sensation and thought based on empirical observations and dissections
  • suggested the brain receives signals - played foundational knowledge of the nervous system
• Galvani 


  • 18th century
  • bio electricity - showed muscles contract in response to electrical signals from nerves through experiments on frogs legs
  • advanced neuroscience by revealing that electrical signals are integral to muscle movement control
• Charles Bell & Francois Magendi


  • early 19th century
  • identified distinction between sensory and motor nerves - Bell-Magendi law
  • Bell initiated - different nerve fibres serves specific functions
  • Magendi confirmed that there are separate pathways in the spinal cord
  • foundational to understanding the nervous system's function and structure
• Franz Josef Gall 


  • 19th century
  • known for the discovery of phrenology
  • phrenology - different brain regions controls specific traits and abilities
  • external shape of the skull determines personality and mental and moral faculties
  • phrenology was later discredited as a pseudoscience
• Camilo Golgi


  • Golgi stain - technique for visualising individual neurones in detail
  • method highlighted discrete neuronal structures including dendrites and axons
  • reticular theory - continuous nervous system network
  • proposed neurones are physically interconnected
• Hans Berger


  • EEGs - measures electrical brain activity
  • provided a non invasive method to study real time brain function
  • first recoded human brain waves
• Ramon Cajal


  • deemed father of modern neuroscience
  • advanced the neurone doctrine - opposing Golgi's reticular theory
  • demonstrated that the nervous system comprises individual neurones that communicate via synapses
• Seiji Ogawa


  • pioneered fMRIs
  • early 1990s - discovered blood oxygen level dependent contract, enabling brain activity measurement through blood flow
  • fMRIs allowed researchers to observe brain activity indirectly by tracking blood oxygenation during cognitive tasks
  • revolutionised the mapping of brain function and cognitive neuroscience