Title: David Ferrier and Eduard Hitzig: The Experimentalists Map the Cerebral Cortex
Abstract: Abstract At the Seventh International Medical Congress held in London late in the summer of 1881, two individuals with contrasting ideas about brain physiology presented their experimental findings and theories. Friedrich Goltz, a physiologist from Strassburg, Germany, opposed the view that the cerebral cortex is made up of specialized organs. David Ferrier, a physiologist from King's College Hospital in London, believed in specialized sensory and motor areas of the cerebral cortex. If Paul Broca's 1861 report can be singled out as the most important clinical paper in the history of cortical localization, the discovery of the cortical motor area by Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig must be regarded as the most significant laboratory discovery. Hitzig became famous in the 1870s for his discovery of the motor cortex in dogs. This chapter looks at Ferrier's experiments with monkeys to study sensory cortical areas and the functions of the frontal cortex, as well as cases of human patients undergoing neurosurgery.
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-03-03
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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