1. Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695): A review of his contributions to neuropsychology on the quadricentennial of his birth
- Author
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Claudio Luzzatti, Harry A. Whitaker, Luzzatti, C, and Whitaker, H
- Subjects
mind-brain relationship ,Psychoanalysis ,history of aphasiology ,focal brain damage ,Brain damage ,M-PSI/02 - PSICOBIOLOGIA E PSICOLOGIA FISIOLOGICA ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,History and Philosophy of Science ,history of neuropsychology ,medicine ,0601 history and archaeology ,Cognitive impairment ,cognitive impairment ,General Neuroscience ,Neuropsychology ,history of scientific thought ,The Renaissance ,06 humanities and the arts ,Apoplexy ,060105 history of science, technology & medicine ,Neurology (clinical) ,anatomical-functional correlations of language ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
The effects of brain damage on behavior have been reported by authors from the Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, and seventeenth-century medical traditions. However, few of the reported cases discussed mind-brain relationships, even fewer reported data that offereda description of cognitive functions, and none described a clear association of a functional mechanism of cognitive impairment with identifiable focal brain damage. An exception is found in the case studies by Johann Jakob Wepfer (1620–1695). After reviewing the pre-seventeenth-century background and Wepfer’s milieu, we analyze his texts on neuroanatomy, apoplexy, and brain vascularization (Observationes anatomicae ex cadaveribus eorum, quos sustulit apoplexia cum exercitatione de ejus loco affecto) and his remarkable collection of 222 neurological cases (Observationes medico-practicae de affectibus capitis internis & externis), posthumously published in 1727. We focus on his reports concerning on the presence of aphasia, memory disorders, and unilateral neglect, correlated with focal brain damage, with particular emphasis on his examination of language impairments.
- Published
- 2020