Professional Documents
Culture Documents
History of Behavioral and Neuro Science
History of Behavioral and Neuro Science
Phrenology (from Greek: phren, mind; and logos, knowledge) is a defunct field of study,
once considered a science, in which the personality traits of a person were determined by
reading bumps and fissures in the skull. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall.
"Phrenology, which focuses on personality and character, is distinct from craniometry, which is
the study of skull size, weight and shape, and physiognomy, the study of facial features"
Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (13 April 1794 6 December 1867), father of Gustave Flourens,
was a French physiologist, the founder of experimental brain science and a pioneer in anesthesia.
Through the study of ablations on animals, he was the first to prove that the mind was located in
the brain, not the heart.
Paul Broca was responsible for his discovery of the speech center, known today as Broca's
area. Broca's area is an area of the cerebral motor cortex in the frontal lobe of the brain that is
responsible for speech development. Damage to Broca's area can cause speech disorders,
including apraxia and dyspraxia of speech.
Functionalism is understanding the human mind and behavior to study the processes of how
and why the mind works as it does, rather than to study the structural contents and elements of
the mind.
James was also of the view that not just consciousness but all human psychological functions
have a definite purpose. For example, fear in an animal creates movement in the body; laughter
reduces tension etc. Therefore, the importance of all these psychological functions as well as
consciousness is due to their functions. If these functions are disturbed, the organism cannot
History of Behavioral and Neuro Science
survive. Therefore, instead of focusing on the structure of the consciousness, scientists should
focus on the function.