1900
TO
1950

1900

Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams.

1903

Ivan Pavlov publishes his work on the “conditioned reflex” from an experiment in which dogs learn to associate food with the sound of a ringing bell, causing them to salivate.

1905

Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon develop the first intelligence test.

1906

Sir Charles S. Sherrington publishes his work on synapse and motor cortex.

1907

Alois Alzheimer presents the case of a 51-yearold woman with presenile degeneration (today known as Alzheimer’s disease).

1910

Emil Kraepelin names Alzheimer's disease after his colleague.

1919

Walter E. Dandy introduces the air encephalography.

1920

The Society of Neurological Surgeons is founded.

1921

The “ink blot test” is developed by Hermann Rorschach.

1929

Hans Berger makes the first human electroencephalogram (EEG) recording.

1927

Using malaria to treat dementia paralyses, Juliers Wagner von Jauregg receives the Nobel Prize.

1936

Antonio Caetano de Abreau Freire De Egas Moniz publishes his work on the first human frontal lobotomies, claiming of favourable results.

1937

James Wenceslas Papez publishes his work on the limbic circuit, presenting theoretically the anatomic basis of emotions.

1938

Ugo Cerletti and Lucino Bini apply electroshock to the first human patient.

1939

Nathaniel Kleitman publishes Sleep and Wakefulness.

1949

John Cade discovers that lithium is an effective treatment for bipolar depression.

Walter Rudolph Hess receives Nobel Prize for his work on the "Interbrain".

A.C.A.F. Egas Moniz receives the Nobel Prize for using leucotomy to treat certain psychoses.

1950
TO
PRESENT

1951

Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors are introduced to treat psychotics.

Rita Levi Montalcini discovers nerve growth factor (NGF).

1953

Rapid eye movement (REM) during sleep is described by Eugene Aserinski and Nathaniel Kleitman.

1957

After locating the source of seizures and finding a physical basis for memory, Wilder Penfield devises the motor and sensory humunculus, a map of the brain portrayed as a cartoon of a miniature human being.

1960

Oleh Hornykiewicz finds that brain dopamine is lower than normal in Parkinson's disease patients.

1965

Ronald Melzack and Patrick D. Wall publish "Pain Mechanisms: A New Theory" in which they discuss their gate control theory.

1969

The Society for Neuroscience is founded.

1973

Sinemet is introduced to treat Parkinson’s disease.

1974

The International Association for the Study of Pain is formed.

Hans Kosterlitz and John Hughes discover encephalin, an endorphin found principally in the brain.

M. E. Phelps, E. J. Hoffman and M. M. Ter Pogossian develop the first Positron Emission Tomograpy (PET) scanner in order to view within the brain.

1981

Roger Wolcott Sperry receives the Nobel Prize for his work on the functions of the hemispheres of the brain.

1987

Fluoxetine (Prozac) is introduced as treatment for depression.

1990

U.S. President George Bush declares the decade starting in 1990 as the “Decade of the Brain”.

1993

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) biologists discover on chromosome 4 the gene responsible for Huntington's disease.

2001

First nerve growth factor gene therapy performed on Alzheimer’s patient.