HISTORY OF NEUROPSYCHOLOGY

The history of Neuropsychology can be traced back to the III and IV century B.C., the age of Hippocrates and Aristotle. During the period there existed two views (theories) of ‘localization of function’.
1. Cardio-centric view is that the organ responsible for mediating behaviour is heart. According to Aristotle (BC 384-322), organs located near brain were connected to heart via vascular channels. Brain balances the heart’s function. Nerves are orginated in the heart. Thought and sensation, both resided there.
Aristotle believed in "dualism" which divides the world into two spheres: mind and matter. The mind (or soul) is a nonphysical entity, which somehow interacts with the material body. In particular, mind-body dualism claims that neither the mind nor matter can be reduced to each other in any way, and is sometimes referred to as "mind and body" and stands in contrast to philosophical monism, which views mind and matter as being ultimately the same kind of thing.
2. Cephalo-centric view is that the organ responsible for mediating behaviour is brain. Pythagoras (circa 550 BC, best known for the Pythagorean theorem) was one of the first to propose that the thought processes and the soul were located in the brain and not the heart.Hippocratus (BC 430-350), in his book The Sacred Disease wrote that brain is the most powerful organ of the human body. Eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet act in accordance with the discernment of the brain.
Earliest documents:
The Edwin Smith Papyrus (2500-3000 BC), discovered in Luxor in 1862 by the Egyptologyst Edwin Smith is an written record which describes 48 observations of brain and spinal injury and its treatment. The document describes various parts of brain including the cranial structures, the meninges, the brain’s external surface and cerebrospinal fluid. It is probably the first document to use the word brain.
Trephanation
Trephanation is the ancient surgical procedure of operating on the human skull by scraping, chiseling, or cutting bone from the skull. Verona & Williams (1992) examinied 750 skulls from Peru and measured trepahaned skulls for technique, location, size, healing, and presence of fractures. Results suggest that most trephanations were performed in the frontal and upper parietal regions following injury to the skull from clubs and other weapons of the pre-Columbian era. Scraping and circular grooving had the highest success rates as opposed to straight cutting and drilling. Techniques used were similar to modern-day methods of drilling "burr holes" to relievepressure and release trapped blood. In olden days, trephination was used to treat the associated skull fracture. Perhaps the practitioner believed that a blood clot was underneath the skull, near the fracture. Such blood clots are a frequent result of this type of traumatic skull injury.
The Cell Doctrine:
This theory postulated that mental and spiritual processes/functions were localized in the ventricles (called Cells) of the brain. The theory was proposed by Nemesius and Saint Augustine in approximatley 130-200 A.D. It was strongly influenced by the anatomical studies of Galen in the second century, in which he described the ventricles in detail and developed his own theory of "psychic gases and humours", that flowed through the body and ventricles (thus, the "ventricular localization hypothesis"), giving rise to mental functions. (He also characterized the brain as a "large clot of phlegm".) The idea that the veltricles were merely a sewer system through which passed bodily fluids, led to the theory of the importance of "humors" which has persisted for 1000 years. Mental functions derived from the descriptions of Aristotle, such as memory, attention, fantasy and reason, were assigned locations within the ventricles. These images depict the connections between the senses (vision, hearing etc.) and the "Common Sense", located in the first ventricle. Cognitive functions were then arrayed from front to back in the ventricles. This Doctrine was proven to be totally false, as we now know that the ventricles are the site through which cerebrospinal fluid passes.
From this period, many important discoveries and theories were noted. Dissections of condemned criminals (who, at that time, were at the disposal of scientists and physicians) led to the knowledge that specific parts of the brain control specific behaviors (discussed later as localization). As well, the discovery of ascending (sensory) and descending (motor) nerves occurred. Galen (circa 200 BC), a prominent ancient Greek physician, performed many operations, including brain and eye surgeries, and also “vivisections” of numerous animals to study the function of the kidneys and the spinal cord. Galen hypothesized that the mind controlled fluids known as pneuma (animal spirits): the brain was the reservoir of pneuma, which were stored in the ventricles. Pneuma traveled through nerves, which Galen believed were tubes, throughout the body - sent out from the brain to the muscles (i.e., controlled by the mind, causing the body to move) and sent back to the brain due to sensory stimulation. Physical functioning was dictated by the balance of four bodily fluids or humors: Blood, Mucus, Yellow bile, Black bile, which were related to the four elements - air, water, fire, and earth. Galen also showed that pressing on the heart in human subjects did not lead to loss of consciousness or loss of sensation but severing the spinal cord in animals abolished sensory responses after brain stimulation.
The First Anatomical Studies:
Vesalius (1514-1564) was the first to conduct careful observations of brain antomy and qualify the teachings of the cell doctrine in which he was trained. He represents the beginning of a period in which careful observations and empirical science began to triumph over the ideas that had been handed down since the time of Aristotle and Galen. Vesalius introduced the anatomical theater in which students and doctors could watch dissections from above. Vesalius made careful diagrams of human anatomy.
Vesalius suggests that the site responsible for the function might be more cerebral in nature. For example, It was thought that sensory function was localized at the fron to the brain; cognition, emotion and imagination were localized centrally; memory was localized towards the brain’s rear end.
Mind-Body Dualism:
Descartes (1596-1650) introduced the concept of a separate mind and body. He believed that all mental functions were located in the pineal gland, a small centrally-located brain structure which is now believed to play a role in sleep/wake and dark/light cycles. The dualist philosophy suggested a complete split between mental and bodily processed, and explained automatic bodily reflexes (body) while purposeful behaviors were a product of free-will (mind).
Descartes did subscribe to some of Galen's theories (that the brain was a reservoir of fluid), as demonstrated by one of his illustrations, in which the fire displaces the skin, which pulls a tiny thread, which opens a pore in the ventricle (F) allowing the "animal spirit" to flow through a hollow tube, which inflates the muscle of the leg, causing the foot to withdraw. This would now be described as a reflex, for which Descartes is credited. Popular culture has many references to dualism.