David Ferrier: The Functions of the Brain (1876)

The doctrine of functional localization—the notion that specific mental processes are correlated with discrete regions of the brain—and the attempt to establish localization by means of empirical observation were essentially 19th century achieve-ments. ¹²² The first critical steps toward these ends were taken by Franz Josef Gall whose attempt to marshal detailed evidence of correlation between variation in function and presumed variation in the brain, first fully established the view that brain serves as the organ of mind. ¹²³

This was followed by the work of Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens, who provided the first experimental demonstration of localization of function in the brain. ¹²⁴ While previous researchers had lesioned the brain through a trephined aperture that made it impossible to localize damage or to track hemorrhage with any accuracy, Flourens completely uncovered and isolated that portion of the brain to be removed. Taking care to minimize operative trauma and post-operative complications, he employed ablation to localize a motor center in the medulla oblongata and stability and motor coordination in the cerebellum.

With respect to the cerebrum, however, his results were quite different. Successive slicing through the hemispheres produced diffuse damage to higher mental functions such as perception, volition, and intellect, with the amount of damage varying only with the extent and not the location of the lesion. From these results, Flourens concluded that while sensorimotor functions are differentiated and localized sub-cortically, higher mental functions operate together, spread throughout the entire cerebrum.

For more than 30 years this was the established view. Then in 1861 the first of a series of studies appeared that would lead to the rejection of this idea and to the establishment of patterns of functional localization in the cortex. The author of this study, Pierre Paul Broca, reported finding a superficial left frontal lobe lesion during post-mortem examination of the brain of an aphasic patient. ¹²⁵ The detail of Broca’s account and the fact that he had gone specifically in search of evidence for the patients’ speech deficit impressed the scientific community. Suddenly it appeared that evidence might, in fact, favor a cortical localization hypothesis. What was needed was a technique for the experi-mental exploration of the surface of the hemispheres and a systematic research program designed to achieve this end.

The technique was contributed in 1870 by Gustav Theodor Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig. ¹²⁶ Employing galvanic stimulation of the cerebrum in the dog, Fritsch and Hitzig provided conclusive evidence that circumscribed areas of the cortex are involved in movements of the contralateral limbs and that ablation of these same areas leads to weakness in these limbs. Their findings established electrophysiology as a preferred method for the experimental exploration of cortical localization of function and demonstrated the participation of the hemispheres in motor function.

The research program was the work of David Ferrier. ¹²⁷ Ferrier’s goal was to employ carefully controlled ablation exper-iments and electrical stimulation to map localization of function across a variety of species. In 1873, he published the first of a series of papers oriented toward this goal; ¹²⁸ and in 1876 he brought his own work together with that of others in the classic 19th century monograph on cortical localization of function, The Functions of the Brain. ¹²⁹

After an introductory sketch of the structure of the nervous system, Ferrier examined the functions of the spinal cord, the medulla, the corpora quadrigemina, and the cerebellum. Among the more interesting and important passages in this section of the book were those relating to spinal cord function in complex sensorimotor integration and activity, implications of decere-bration experiments for the distinction between voluntary and reflexive movement, and experiments on the control of eye movements through electrical stimulation of the cerebellum.

Ferrier then turned to the motor and sensory functions of the cerebral hemispheres. Using faradic rather than galvanic current to elicit movements approximating real actions (e.g., walking, grasping, scratching), ¹³⁰ he replicated and extended the results of Fritsch and Hitzig, producing detailed maps relating type of movement to locus of stimulation in the brains of monkeys, dogs, jackals, cats, and rodents. With regard to sensory function, Ferrier localized a center for smell in the uncate region of the temporal lobe, auditory cortex in the superior temporo-sphenoidal convolution, and primate vision in the angular gyrus of the posterior parietal lobe—a conclusion eventually modified by Hermann Munk’s later discovery of visual cortex in the occipital lobe. ¹³¹

Toward the end of the monograph, Ferrier even addressed the functions of the frontal lobes. Observing apparently purposeless and impulsive behavior in monkeys and dogs with lesions of the anterior frontal cortex, he noted that these animals, “while not actually deprived of intelligence…had lost, to all appearance, the faculty of attentive and intelligent observation.” ¹³² Although he was loathe to attribute any clear physiological function to frontal cortex, Ferrier suggested that the frontal lobes might subserve the psychological function of selection among and inhibition of competing ideas characteristic of attention and intelligence.

The importance of Functions of the Brain cannot be overestimated. It served as a model of careful, thoughtful, and programmatic research on the nervous system and solidified acceptance of the principle of cortical localization of function. It provided a physiological basis for sensorimotor analysis of the sort that was to become the dominant paradigm for explanation in functional psychology; and, in many ways, it inaugurated the modern era in neurosurgery, an era in which surgeons are guided in their work by functional maps of the brain.

¹²² It is important to note, however, that in a diffuse and general way, the idea of functional localization had been available since antiquity. Thus, for example, a notion of “soul” globally related to the brain can be found in the work of Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Plato, Erisistratus, and Galen, among others.

¹²³ Gall, F.J. & Spurzheim, J.G. (1810–19). Anatomie et physiologie du système nerveux en général, et du cerveau en particulier, avec des observations sur la possibilité re reconnoître plusieurs dispositions intellectuelles et morales de l’homme et des animaux, par la configuration de leurs têtes. Paris: F. Schoell.

¹²⁴ Flourens, M-J-P. (1824). Recherches expérimentales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du système nerveux, dans les animaux vertébrés. Paris: Crevot.

¹²⁵ Broca, P. (1861). Remarques sur le siége de la faculté du langage articulé, suivies d’une observation d’aphemie (perte de la parole). Bulletins de la société anatomique de Paris, année 36, 2ème serie, tome 6, 330–57.

¹²⁶ Fritsch, G. & Hitzig, E. (1870). Über die elektrische Erregbarkeit des Grosshirns. Archiv für Anatomie, Physiologie, und wissenschaftliche Medicin, 300–32.

¹²⁷ 1843–1928. For biographical information on Ferrier, see Clarke, E. (1971). David Ferrier. In C.C. Gillispie (Ed.). Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Vol. 4). New York: Scribner’s, pp. 593–5.

¹²⁸ Ferrier, D. (1873). Experimental researches in cerebral physiology and pathology. West Riding Lunatic Asylum Medical Reports, 3, 30–96.

¹²⁹ Ferrier, D. (1876). The Functions of the Brain. London: Smith, Elder.

¹³⁰ Galvanic current produced only brief muscular contractions.

¹³¹ Munk, H. (1878). Weitere Mittheilungen zur Physiologie der Grosshirnrinde. Verhandlungen der Physiologischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin, 162–78.

¹³² Ferrier (1876), op. cit., p. 232.

Extracted from Classics in Psychology, 1855–1914: Historical Essays
ISBN 1 85506 703 X
© Robert H. Wozniak, 1999

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Classics in Psychology, 1855–1914 Historical Essays - Contents
Classics in Psychology, 1855-1914