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500 BCE
Alcmaeon
Alcmaeon is often referred to as the 'Father of Psychology'. He was a pioneer in the study of human psychology and physiology. He introduced the concept that the mind and soul are located in the brain. He believed that that the brain not only received of vision, hearing and smell but was also the seat of thought. He was also a pioneer in the dissection of animals for research purposes. -
Period: 500 BCE to
Brain history
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430 BCE
Empedocles
Empedocles is most known for his motion that every living and non-living thing in the world is made from four elements-earth, fire, air and water. He also proposed forces he called 'Love' and 'Strife'. 'Love' caused the elements to blend together and create the physical world, 'Strife' forced the elements apart and caused destruction. He believed that the heart was the centre of the body's blood vessel system, so therefore the human soul is blood and our thoughts must be located in the blood -
370 BCE
Hippocrates
Hippocrates is now regarded as the 'Father of Medicine'. He advanced our understanding of the brain and nervous system by dissecting the bodies of humans and animals and recording his findings in highly detailed ways for other physicians. Hippocrates wrote that all our emotions 'arise from the brain and the brain alone' and with the brain 'we think and understand, see and hear'. He also believed that certain moods, emotions and behaviours were caused by an excess or lack of bodily fluids. -
322 BCE
Aristotle
Aristotle wrote the first known text in the history of psychology, called Para Psyche 'About the Mind'. In Para Psyche, he proposed that our minds are the 'first entelechy' or main reason for the existence and functioning of the body. He also thought that there were three types of souls defining life; the plant, animal and human soul, which gave humanity the unique ability to reason and create. He believed that the libido and urge to recreate was the overriding impulse of all living things. -
René Descartes
René Descartes proposed that the human mind and body are seperate but interconnected. He also believed that the pineal gland connected the mind and body, allowing them to interact. He recorded that the pineal gland was right in the middle of the brain, well located to act as the centre of consciousness and control behaviour. -
Pierre Flourens
Pierre is credited as introducing brain ablation experiments. He performed these experiments on animals, mainly rabbits and pigeons. He developed techniques of damaging or removing small areas of brain tissue to measure the effects on behaviour. His research also provided the first scientific evidence that challenged the value of phrenology. -
Franz Josef Gall
Gall suggested that different parts of the brain had different functions. This concept is know known as 'localisation of brain function'. Gall said that personality characteristics and mental abilities were controlled by different brain organs which were located on the surface. He argued the more it was used, the more it would develop and vice versa. He also said that the development of a particular part would push out the surrounding skull to the degree that it would cause a bump on the head. -
Karl Lashley
Lashley developed two principles of brain function- mass action and equipotentiality. Mass action is the idea that the large areas of the brain function as a whole in complex functions and that if a part is injured, then loss of function will depend on the amount of cortex that is destroyed. Equipotentiality is the idea that any healthy part of the cortex can gain control of an injured part. -
Wilder Penfield
Penfield used ESB (electrical stimulation of the brain) to map the cerebral cortex, using his patients as research participants. Penfield invented a new treatment for individuals with severe epilepsy. His treatment involved surgically removing the area he believed to be the source of epileptic seizures. -
Roger Sperry
Sperry was awarded with a Nobel Peace prize in 1981 for his work in pioneering research on the relationship between the brain and behaviour. His experiments distinctly demonstrated that the brain's two cerebral hemispheres specialise in different tasks. This came to be known as 'left brain' and 'right brain'.
