BEFORE
COMMON
ERA (BCE)

ca. 5100

Holes in Neolithic sculls with evidence of healing suggest early brain surgery.

ca. 1600

The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus, copied from a manuscript originally compiled in Egypt ca. 3000 BCE, is the first documented reference to the brain and brain surgery.

ca. 500

Alcmaeon associates the senses to the brain.

460-379

Hippocrates states epilepsy as a disturbance of the brain. He also discusses the brain as the seat of intelligence and the brain’s involvement with sensations.

387

Plato supports the idea that the brain is the seat of mental processes

335

Aristotle, Plato’s student, argues the heart is the seat of mental processes and sensations, makes the first reference to a cerebral ventricle, and writes about sleep.

335-280

Herophilus, the "Father of Anatomy", describes in detail the ventricles, believing they are the seat of human intelligence, function, and the soul (or mind).

280

Erasistratus, Herophilus’ student, continues his teacher’s anatomical studies, noting the convolutions of the brain surface.

129-199

Galen concludes the soul does not reside in the ventricles, since penetrating ventricles deprives individuals of sensory and motor activities but is not fatal.  He later describes the brain, spinal cord, and nerves as one unit – the nervous system.

0 CE TO
1700 CE

1410

Institution for the mentally ill established in Valencia, Spain

1504

Leonardo da Vinci produces a cast of the cerebral ventricles of an ox by injecting them with molten wax.

1536

Nicolo Massa describes the cerebrospinal fluid.

1543

Andreas Vesalius, Belgian physician and anatomist, argues that the seat of brain function does not reside in the ventricles but rather the tissue surrounding them.

1564

Aranzi coins the term "hippocampus".

1573

Constanzo Varolio introduces a new method of dissecting the brain, starting at its base. He also names the pons.

1609

Guilio Casserio publishes the first description of mammillary bodies and draws the circle of arteries at the base of the brain (“circle of Willis”).

1649

Rene Descartes believes the pineal body is the control centre of the body and mind.

1658

Johann Jakof Wepfer theorizes that broken blood vessels in the brain may cause apoplexy (stroke).

1664

Thomas Willis publishes “Cerebri anatome”, which discusses the function of the arteries at the base of the brain.