LOCALIZATION AND REPRESENTATION - HISTORY OF BRAIN RESEARCH IN 19TH AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURY

The idea, that the cerebral cortex is responsible for the integration of sensory informations and the coordination of complex movement patte rns, originated in the 19th century. In the last decades of this centu ry, neuroscience became dominated by electrophysiology. During this pe riod, neuroanatomical research was blocked by a discussion about the b asic units of the nervous tissue. Thus, in the last decade of the 19th century and the beginning 20th century, the conceptual development of neurobiology was essentially a physiological one. The analysis of the cortical 'hardware' was neglected by the neurophysiologists of that t ime. Data about the finer texture of the brain did not significantly i nfluence the development of early 20th century neurobiology.