Landmark Discoveries in Neuroscience

Running head: Neuroscience 1
Landmark Discoveries over the Past 250 Years That Have Laid the Foundations for Modern
Neuroscience.
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Neuroscience 2
Introduction
As far as history dates back, humans have often been amazed about their nature and the
foundations of our existence. It seems like the historical scientists had first to find out or
comprehend the origin of the thought process before they could comprehensively respond to
the question, ‘whom am I?’ it was mandatory for them to understand the background of the
thought process. This essay discusses the landmark discoveries of neuroscience over the past
250 years that have laid the foundations of modern neuroscience (Kambi & Jain, 2012).
The Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus is the earliest recorded reference to the brain and was
published in the 17th century. The hieroglyph for the brain is reported over seven times in the
papyrus, and it outlined the symptoms, diagnosis, and prognosis of patients with head wounds
and compounded skull fractures (van Middendorp, Sanchez, & Burridge, 2010). The anatomy
of the ears was published in 1704 by Antonio Maria Valsalva. The Valsalva antrum of the ear
and the Valsalva maneuver are associated with his name and are used as a test of circulatory
function. The author also successfully removed a dog’s kidney and was against cauterization
as an intervention in the treatment of wounds, and instead suggested the humane treatment of
sick patients (Wiest, 2015). In 1717 Antony van Leeuwenhoek explained nerve fiber in cross-
section. Antony made significant contributions in microscopy and created over 25 single-lens
microscopes (Boullerne, 2016). Reflex was first described by Jean Astruc in 1736. However,
the initial complete scientific description of reflex was described by John Augustus Unzer in
1799 (Niklasson, 2012).
A follower of Hippocrates named as Herophilus described the structure of the different parts
of the brain, tendons, nerves, and sections of the eye. After the time of Hirophilus, the
concept that various functions are found in different physical locations of the brain was not
yet explored all through the period of the church influence until the time of dark ages. These