Galen's ideas on neurological function

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
F R Freemon

Abstract

Galen was the leading physician of the Roman empire during the last half of the second century. Unlike some of his predecessors, Galen concluded that the brain controlled cognition and willed action. The initial evidence for this doctrine was that the brain was the site of termination of all of the five senses: touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Galen presumed that the information from these five senses was organized by a part of the brain that generated a concept of an object common to all senses; this part of the brain he considered to be the area of common sense. Galen thought that he could differentiate sensory from motor nerves (not nerve fibers) by palpation. Sensory nerves were soft because they needed to be impressed with the essence of the object seen, heard, felt, smelled, or tasted. Motor nerve fibers were very hard because they needed to carry the force of the will from the brain to the muscles. Strong willed people had especially firm motor nerve fibers; hence, the modern term that a person with great bravery has 'nerves of steel'. Galen considered that common sense, cognition, and memory were functions of the brain. Personality and emotion were not generated by the brain, but rather by the body as a whole (o...Continue Reading

References

Jan 1, 1993·Journal of the History of the Neurosciences·F C Rose
Jan 1, 1973·Classical Quarterly·V Nutton

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Citations

Oct 1, 1994·Journal of the History of the Neurosciences·F C Rose
Oct 20, 2001·Journal of the History of the Neurosciences·J Rocca
Oct 18, 2001·The Journal of Legal Medicine·F R Freemon
Feb 9, 2017·Neurological Sciences : Official Journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology·Roja RahimiMaryam Noroozian
Mar 28, 2017·Journal of Comparative Physiology. A, Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology·Günther K H Zupanc
Feb 14, 2021·Neurosurgical Review·A I CucuM D Turliuc

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