The History of Neurobiology

Neurobiology, or neuroscience, is the study of the nervous system. This branch of science entails the study of the pathology, physiology and the anatomy of the nervous system. Neurology is specifically the medical study of the nervous system and disorders that affect it. Records show that discoveries in this science date back as far as 4000 B.C.

The Beginnings

• The oldest medical records, called the Edwin Smith surgical papyrus, were written around 1700 B.C. These records are important to neurobiology because they contain the first records that pertain to the brain, spinal cord, cerebrospinal fluid and the coverings of the brain. The papyrus cover 48 cases, and are based on earlier texts which in part date back to approximately 3000 B.C.The papyrus is named after the American Egyptologist Edwin Smith who bought the documents in Luxor, Egypt, in 1862.

500 to 379 B.C.

• In 500 B.C. Alcmaion of Crotona dissected both the optic nerve and the sensory nerves. These were the first dissections of nerves, and the earliest hands-on information about nerves and the nervous system. In 460-379 B.C. Hippocrates recognized the brain as a vessel of intelligence and stated that the brain was involved with sensations. Hippocrates also discussed epilepsy as a disturbance or disorder of the brain. In 387 B.C. Plato also believed that the brain was the location of mental processes. These were the first ideas that the brain was the beginning of neuro processes, and therefore the root of the nervous system.

100 to 1316 A.D.

• In 100 A.D. Marinus of Alexandria described the 10th cranial nerve. Rhazes, an Islamic physician, described seven cranial nerves, and 31 spinal nerves in his work "Kitab al-Hawi Fi Al Tibb," one of over 200 books by Rhazes. In 1000 A.D. Al-Zahrawi, who is also known as Albucasis and Abulcasis, described surgical treatments used on neurological disorders. And in 1316 the first European anatomy book (the Anothomia) was written by Mondino de'Luzzi.

1500 to 1600

• Many advances in anatomy during the 16th century were due to one man, Andreas Vesalius, whose father was the court apothecary to King Charles V. Andreas Vesalius published two major works, "Tabulae Anatomicae" and "On the Workings of the Human Body." The physician also discussed the pineal gland and drew the corpus striatum (a pair of nerve tissue masses in the brain). In the year 1561, Gabriele Falloppio published "Observationes Anatomicae," and within the text some of the cranial nerves were described. The compound microscope was invented by Zacharias Janssen in 1590.

1600 to 1700

• Thomas Willis made many contributions to neuroscience in this era. In 1661, he described a case of meningitis. In 1664, he published his work "Cerebri Anatome" and described the 11th cranial nerve, which is the accessory nerve. Willis coined the term neurology in 1681, the same year the English addition of "Cerebri Anatome" was published.