Currently, and although there are still many mysteries to discover, we know a lot about our brain. At least, if we compare it with past times. Neuroscience as such is a relatively modern science, which began at the end of the 18th century and had one of its high points with the study of neuronal communication by the Nobel Prize winner Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934), called, precisely, the “father of modern neuroscience”.
But How was the human brain viewed in ancient times? What did the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans know about this organ? What theories about brain activity have survived to modern times? Join us in this review of what the human brain looked like in ancient times.
The desire to discover where in the human body the soul (and, therefore, thought and emotions) was located, has existed since ancient times. Broadly speaking, historically they are recognized two branches in this sense: the so-called cardiocentrist and the call encephalocentrist.
As can be assumed from their respective names, the first places the heart as the focus of thoughts and emotions, while the second has the brain as the center of all these processes.
Cardiocentrism or the magical-religious vision of the human body
It is interesting how, broadly speaking, this cardiocentric vision corresponds to a stage of humanity where a magical-religious vision predominated. Although this statement is too categorical (there have always been attempts scientists to explain and explore nature), it is true that, prior to classical Greece, an evident cardiocentrism prevailed, closely linked to religious beliefs and mythology.
Traditionally (and this is still the case in many current alternative currents) the heart constitutes the center of the organism, the very habitat of the soul. Even today we use words and expressions that come from the root cor-cordisthe Latin word to designate this body; For example, agreementwhich etymologically means “two hearts that understand each other.” And even today, in the English language, “learn by heart” is said “to learn by heart.”
In this way we can observe the importance that the heart had in the first millennia of humanity and the link that was given to it with the soul, knowledge and life itself. In this sense, the brain was something very secondary, whose function was not very clear.
Prehistoric and Egyptian trepanations
Already in Prehistory, cranial trepanations were practiced, that is, perforations of the skull bone, as attested to by the various bone remains found. What’s more; In many individuals, more than one hole is observed, which means that the person survived the first trepanation, and sometimes a second.
Although the habit of drilling the skull could have positive effects on health (sometimes it helped reduce brain pressure and/or drain hematomas), It is believed that the main objective that our ancestors had when opening someone’s skull was to “remove the demons” Well, before empirical science, it was believed that many illnesses related to the head (migraines, epilepsy, etc.) had a spiritual origin.
The Egyptians continued to practice trepanation quite successfully, with the same objective of relieving pain. However, on a religious level the brain was of no importance, as witnessed by its practice of mummification, during which this organ was removed through the deceased’s nose with irons and simply discarded.
The first “scientific” study of the brain: the Edwin Smith papyrus
Although the Egyptians did not consider the brain as a vital part of life in the afterlife, they apparently were interested in its functioning. At least, this is what emerges from the famous Edwin Smith papyrus, dated to 1600 BC and which is believed to be a copy of an earlier document, from no less than the 3rd millennium BC.
Many researchers consider the Edwin Smith papyrus to be the first more or less scientific study of the human brain. It is a compendium of almost fifty cases of war wounds, with their description and the treatment awarded. The author describes, among other elements, the cerebral meninges, the cerebrospinal fluid and the intracranial pulsations with astonishing precision for the time.
But the most curious thing about the document is that on only one occasion does the author review a “miraculous” treatment for the wound. In other cases, the solution is based on a rational technique, which clashes with the Egyptian custom of using spells to combat diseases, which were believed to be an evil sent by the gods or bad spirits.
Logos appears… and encephalocentrism
But, despite these few examples of rational observation of the brain, the true encephalocentrism It does not appear until classical Greece, at the hands of authors such as Alcmeon of Crotona (5th century BC). In fact, it was this thinker who proposed that the soul was found in the brain and not in the heart, as was still maintained.
We must understand the appearance of this encephalocentric vision of the human being (that is, according to which the center of reasoning and emotions is in the brain) in a context of the passage from myth to logos. It is in the 6th century BC when, with the help of the new pre-Socratic philosophers, an empirical vision of reality begins to take shape and a scientific observation of nature is inaugurated, far from mythological explanation.
In any case, the debate remained open and, in reality, the encephalocentric view was always marginal. Even Artistotle himself (384-322 BC) was a supporter of the theory that the heart was the center of the human being. the place where the soul and, therefore, the intellect was located, and that the function of the brain consisted “only” of cooling the blood heated by it.
Hippocrates of Cos and the rise of the study of the brain
Hippocratic medicine, founded by Hippocrates of Cos (5th – 4th centuries BC) and his followers, was in force in the West until well into the Modern Age. Its basis was the famous theory of the four humors, whose imbalance produced disease. In this theory, the brain had a prominent importance, since it was believed that phlegm (one of the humors) was produced by this organ, and that when its excretion was exaggerated, the excessive phlegm traveled through the blood and disease appeared.
If you look, this theory implicitly implies the knowledge that blood entered and left the brain. In one of the most famous ancient writings on Hippocratic medicine, On the disease sacred (whose author was probably a disciple of Alcmeon of Crotona), attempts are made to find a rational explanation for epilepsy known then as an evil sent by the gods.
In the text, the anonymous author points out that the convulsions resulting from the disease were not the result of divine punishment, but were due to natural causes, apparently produced by excess cerebral phlegm, which prevents air from reaching the brain. brain. Of course, this is an erroneous theory, but its importance lies in the scientific explanation it tries to give to epilepsy and, above all, the importance it gives to the brain.
Galen (129-216 AD), the famous Roman physician, took advantage of the studies of the cerebral ventricles that had been previously carried out by the Greeks Herophilus and Erasitratus and argued that knowledge (and its related functions: memory, emotion, cognition and senses) lay in brain tissue.
Much later, already in the Modern Age, encephalocentrism acquired notable momentum. In the 18th century, the discovery of the electrical activity of the human body (and, therefore, of the brain) inaugurated a path that would not stop and continues to the present day.
