The brain has always been considered one of the most mysterious organs in the human body, and has been studied from ancient Egypt to the present day. The exploration of how the brain works and functions has evolved over time and for different purposes, and much of it remains uncharted territory. In the 21st century, interdisciplinary brain science research is flourishing, and it is becoming an important field for predicting the future of humanity.
Ever since the first beings we can call “human” appeared on Earth, humans have carefully observed and studied their bodies. This curiosity was quite natural in a time when the body was all you had and the only source of food, clothing, and shelter. Beginning as a tool of survival, the study of the human body has been passed down from generation to generation as a spiritual heritage, sometimes as an object of intellectual inquiry, sometimes as a means to make killing easier in warfare, and has continued into the modern era for a variety of purposes and desires.
What is the most mysterious part of the body, a collection of riddles and full of questions? I’m sure there are many people who would answer “the brain” to this question. It’s an organ that doesn’t give up its secrets easily, and neuroscience is considered to be at the forefront of modern natural science, with a myriad of unpredictable applications. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at the history of neuroscience, from prehistoric times to the present day.
The first records of nervous system research date back to ancient Egypt, where craniotomies were performed on patients suffering from severe headaches or mental illness. It’s a fancy way of saying craniotomy, but in all honesty, it’s just a rough knife slicing through your head and sewing it back together if you had a headache or if you were a weirdo. It wasn’t until the late Greeks that it was actually accepted that the brain governs mental activity. Before Hippocrates, it was common knowledge that the heart controlled consciousness, the brain controlled body temperature, and a runny nose was the result of the brain overloading, a view that was widespread in society, including Aristotle. However, during the time of two legendary Greek physicians, Hippocrates and Galenus, it became common knowledge that the brain controlled consciousness. Galenus, who treated gladiators in Roman times, even wrote that gladiators lost their mental faculties if they suffered sustained damage to the brain.
After antiquity, the study of the brain began to wane in Europe. In medieval Western Europe, it was a virtue to worship the divine and not question nature. It was in the Islamic world of the East that research took over. Abu al-Qasim, al-Zahrawi, Abenzoar, Averroes, and others, including Abulcasis, wrote about medical questions, but with the fall of the medieval Islamic states, their work was lost. It wasn’t until the Renaissance that the study of the brain began again in Western Europe. Descartes, who argued that the brain controls all movement in animals, and Vesalius, who studied the brain through human dissection, which was taboo at the time.
In the modern era, brain research began to advance rapidly, starting with Galvani’s bioelectric experiments. This experiment, which demonstrated that electricity is generated in the legs of frogs, was an important first step in suggesting that the nervous system is a mechanical system that uses electrical signals to send and receive commands. Richard Caton’s subsequent demonstration of electrical currents in the brain, combined with advances in microscopy, led to the modern study of the brain.
The first achievement made possible by precise dissection and advances in microscopic resolution was the discovery of neurons. Although it’s common knowledge today, neurons were only discovered in the early 20th century, and before that, they were considered anomalies that deviated from the common sense that organs are tissues made up of cells. However, when the Italian Camillo Golgi developed a silver stain that allowed for the observation of neurons, it became clear that the brain was also a collection of cells called neurons. Since then, there has been a lot of research into the role of each area of the brain and how it works, most notably the Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area of the cerebral cortex. The Frenchman Paul Broca theorized that certain parts of the cerebral cortex were responsible for specific functions, which was later proven by the fact that damage to these areas impaired language skills. Together with Carl Wernicke, who developed theories about language production and comprehension, they left their mark on the brain. Both of these areas govern language, but their functions are different. Broca’s area is responsible for producing speech, while Wernicke’s area is responsible for interpreting language. So someone with damage to Broca’s area will understand what someone else is saying, but will spout incomprehensible gibberish, while someone with damage to Wernicke’s area will interpret what someone else is saying in a strange way and respond accordingly. Thanks to advances in electrophysiology, bioinformatics, and molecular biology, neuroscientists have made great strides in understanding the mechanical workings of the brain, including the study of synapses, the gaps between neurons, and the electrical potentials that transmit electrical signals.
Despite these great advances, many parts of the brain are still shrouded in mystery, and many fascinating topics await us. For example, attempts to use the brain’s structure to create bio-parallel computers to replace serial computers, research on brain transplantation, and cryotherapy of the brain. Current research on mental activity in the brain is not limited to any particular academic discipline, and researchers are not necessarily biologists or physiologists. In fact, the topic is so vast that it’s hard to know exactly what’s being studied. However, this is not a negative thing. On the contrary, it is positive. In the 21st century, the era of applied and interdisciplinary science, the synergies that come from the collaboration of experts in different fields are expected to continue to energize the field of neuroscience. As the frontier of modern intellect, exploring brain science is perhaps a way to foresee the future of humanity.
