Functional organisation of the cerebral cortex: from Gall to Lashley
A. García-Molina, J. Peña-Casanova
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(4):171-179
Type of article: REVIEW
AUTHORS
A. García-Molina1,2, J. Peña-Casanova2,3,4
1Institut Guttmann, Institut Universitari de Neurorehabilitació adscrit a la UAB, Badalona, Spain.
2Fundació Institut d’Investigació en Ciències de la Salut Germans Trias i Pujol, Badalona, Spain.
3Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain.
4Fundació Institut Mar d’Investigacions Médiques (FIMIM), Barcelona, Spain.
5Department of psychiatry and legal medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
ABSTRACT
Introduction. In the late 18th century, Franz Joseph Gall questioned the concept of the functional unity of the cerebral cortex, foreshadowing the advent of a new era in the study of cortical function.
Development. This review aims to provide a general view of the understanding of the functional organisation of the cerebral cortex in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This historical period is characterised by the dialectical confrontation between two factions: supporters of the parcellation of the cerebral cortex, and proponents of the functional unity of the cerebral cortex. The latter position, supported by Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens’ doctrine of cortical equipotentiality, dominated scientific thought in the first half of the 19th century. In the 1860s, it was supplanted by the theory of cortical parcellation, thanks to the contributions of Paul Pierre Broca, Eduard Hitzig, and Gustav Fritsch. During the same period, Carl Wernicke established the basis for cortical connectionism, a doctrine that conceived the cortex as a mosaic of interconnected functional centres. The early years of the 20th century saw an expansion of the anti-localisationist current, led by Pierre Marie, Henry Head, and Shepherd Ivory Franz; this current reached its greatest height with Karl Lashley.
Conclusions. In the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, the study of the functional organisation of the brain pivoted between two opposing epistemological positions: the localisationist/connectionist doctrine and the anti-localisationist current.
KEYWORDS
Cerebral cortex, localisationism, connectionism, antilocalisationism, equipotentiality, neuroanatomy
Neurosciences and History 2024;12(4):240-251
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