In this blog post, we will look at the reasons why mankind has considered the brain to be the most mysterious organ and has been constantly exploring it throughout the ages.
Since the first being that could be called “human” appeared on Earth, mankind has carefully observed and studied their own bodies. In an era when the body was all one had, and the only driving force for getting food, clothing, and shelter, such curiosity was quite natural. The quest for the human body, which began as a means of survival, has been passed down from generation to generation as a spiritual legacy. The study of the human body has continued to the present day, with various purposes and desires, sometimes as an object of intellectual inquiry and sometimes as a means to kill more easily in war.
What is the most mysterious part of the human body, which is full of questions, so much so that it could be called a collection of riddles? I’m sure many people would answer “the brain” to this question. The brain is an organ that does not easily reveal its secrets, and brain science is considered to be at the forefront of modern natural science with its unpredictable and infinite application value. In this article, I would like to briefly look at the history of neuroscience from prehistoric times to the present.
The first records of the study of the nervous system date back to ancient Egypt. At the time, there are records of head trepanation being performed on patients suffering from severe headaches or mental illness. To put it nicely, it was a craniotomy, but to be honest, it was just a story about cutting the head with a rough knife and then sewing it back up if someone had a headache or was a bit strange. In fact, it was only in the late Hellenistic period that it became established as an established theory that the brain governs mental activity. Before Hippocrates, it was generally believed that the heart was the organ that controlled consciousness, and the brain controlled body temperature, and that nasal mucus was caused by the brain overloading. This belief was widespread throughout society, including among Aristotle. However, during the time of Hippocrates and Galen, two legendary Greek physicians, it became common knowledge that the brain was the organ that controlled consciousness. Galen, who treated gladiators during the Roman era, also left a record stating that gladiators lose their mental abilities when they sustain continuous damage to their brains.
Since ancient times, research on the brain has begun to stagnate in Europe. In medieval Western Europe, it was a virtue to praise the divine and not to have any doubts about nature. At this time, the Islamic world of the East took over the baton of research. Abu al-Qasim, known as Abulcasis, al-Zahrawi, Avicenna, and Abu-l-Hasan al-Ayyubi, among others, left records of their medical questions, but their research disappeared without being passed on as the medieval Islamic countries fell. The Renaissance was when Western Europe began to study the brain again. The most representative figures were Descartes, who claimed that the brain controlled all animal movements, and Vesalius, who conducted brain research through the dissection of the human body, which was taboo at the time.
After that, brain research began to progress rapidly in the modern and contemporary eras, starting with Galvani’s bioelectric experiments. This experiment, which proved that electric currents flow in frog legs, was an important first step in suggesting that the nervous system is a mechanical system that uses electrical signals to send and receive commands. Later, Richard Caton proved that electric currents flow in the brain, and the combination of mechanical understanding of the brain and the development of microscopes finally began modern brain research.
The first achievement made possible by the development of precise dissection and microscopic resolution was the discovery of neurons. Although it is common knowledge today, neurons were only discovered in the early 20th century, and before that, they were perceived as unusual entities that deviated from the common knowledge that organs are tissues made up of cells. However, when Camillo Golgi of Italy developed a silver staining method that enabled the observation of neurons, it was confirmed that the brain is also a tissue made up of cells called neurons. Since then, research has been actively conducted on what each area of the brain does and on the principles of brain function. The most representative examples of this are the Broca area and the Wernicke area of the cerebral cortex. Frenchman Paul Broca argued that certain parts of the cerebral cortex were responsible for specific functions, which was later proven by the fact that damage to those parts impaired language ability. Together with Carl Wernicke, who developed a theory of speech production and comprehension, they made their names known in the field of brain science. Both of these areas control language, but they have different functions. The Broca area is responsible for the function of speaking, while the Wernicke area is responsible for the function of interpreting language. Therefore, a person who has only injured the Broca area will understand what others say but will utter incomprehensible gibberish, while a person who has only injured the Wernicke area will interpret what others say strangely and respond accordingly. Thanks to advances in electrophysiology, bioinformatics, and molecular biology, neuroscientists have made great strides in the study of the mechanical workings of the brain, including the study of synapses, the gaps between neurons, and the study of electrical potentials during signal transmission.
Despite these great advances, many parts of the brain remain shrouded in mystery, and many exciting topics await us. For example, there are attempts to create a bio-parallel computer that will replace serial computers by applying the structure of the brain, research on brain transplantation, and low-temperature treatment of the brain. Currently, research on the mental activities of the brain is not limited to a specific academic field, and researchers do not necessarily have to be biologists or physiologists. Rather, the research topics are so vast that it is difficult to identify exactly what is being studied. However, this is not a negative situation at all. Rather, it is a positive situation. In the 21st century, which is the era of applied and interdisciplinary science, it is expected that the synergy created by experts from various fields working together will bring endless vitality to the field of brain science. It is reasonable to expect that exploring the frontiers of modern intelligence, brain science, may be a way to predict the future of humanity.
