Angelo Mosso's Circulation of Blood in the Human Brain

Modern brain imaging is revolutionizing the study of brain function in health and disease. However, few realize that its origins began in the nineteenth century with Dr. Angelo Mosso's pioneering experiments. A foremost Italian physiologist and scientist, Angelo Mosso studied several patients brought to him with head injuries that exposed their live brains to direct, long-term observation. He took advantage of these rare opportunities to document, for the first time, changes in cerebral blood flow in response to different stimuli, behaviors, and emotions, the very same changes that are now the basis for the measurements underlying modern functional brain imaging. Mosso was widely recognized by his contemporaries for his highly original studies, published both in Italian in 1878 and in German in 1881. Yet there has never been a translation through which this groundbreaking work could be appreciated by the English-speaking world. Indeed, Angelo Mosso's sophisticated experiments were to neuroscience what surgeon William Beaumont's in vivo observations were to gastric physiology fifty years earlier. This unique monograph establishes Mosso's rightful role as the pioneer of brain imaging. Through it, the modern reader, whether expert neuroscientist or interested student, can gain a new perspective on the author's remarkable insights: how behaviors as subtle as thinking about a subject or feeling an emotion produce the changes in pulsations of the brain that he observed and recorded for posterity. Special features of this volume include first a brief summary of Mosso's life. Two pioneers of modern brain imaging, Marcus E. Raichle (winner of the Kavli Prize for Neuroscience) and Gordon M. Shepherd (Yale University Professor of Neurobiology) then review Mosso's work and provide extensive commentary to explain its relevance to modern brain science. The authors not only emphasize Mosso's pioneering role in brain imaging, but also his fundamental contribution to the rise of cognitive neuroscience. The English translation (by historian of medicine Christiane Nockels Fabbri) follows, together with all of the plates and illustrations of the original volume. The result is a classic of neuroscience, now available for wide appreciation by neuroscientists, neurologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, historians of science and medicine, and the general public.

Autorentext

Marcus E. Raichle, MD, PhD, Depts of Radiology, Neurology, Anatomy and Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine Gordon M. Shepherd, MD, DPhil, Department of Neurobiology, Yale University Medical School

Inhalt

Introduction Brief Biography of Angelo Mosso and His Times Commentary: From Mosso to Modern Brain Imaging Note on the Translation Brief Translator's Biography Translation: Circulation of Blood in the Human Brain Critical Historical Introduction 1. Notes Concerning the Disease States of the Three Subjects in Whom the Conditions of the Blood Circulation in the Brain Were Studied 2. Description of the Equipment Used to Record the Pulse of the Brain and of Other Parts of the Body 3. General Considerations Regarding the Configuration of the Pulse 4.Concerning the Response of the Cerebral Circulation During Increased Mental Activity and With Emotional and Sensory Perceptions 5. Sleep and Its Relationship to Cerebral Blood Flow 6. Reflections on the Nature of Sleep and its Concomitant Phenomena 7. On the Fluctuations of the Cerebral Tracings That Are Controlled by the Movements of the Vessels and of the Heart 8. Concerning the Movements of the Blood Vessels in the External Ear of the Rabbit 9. The Influence of Respiratory Movements on the Blood Circulation in the Brain and in the Lungs 10. Experimental Critique of the Investigations on the Pulmonary Circulation Undertaken by Quincke and Pfeiffer, by Funke and Latschenberger, and by Bowditch and Garland 11. Influence of the Respiratory Movements on the Systemic Blood Pressure 12. Influence of Amyl Nitrite on the Blood Circulation in the Brain 13. Anemia and Hyperemia of the Brain 14. Concerning the Blood Circulation Inside the Intact Skull 15. Investigations Into the Movements of the Cerebrospinal Fluid Index