History of Behavioral and Neuro Science

Franz Joseph Gall Claimed as the founder Doctrine of Phrenology.

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.
"Flourens developed ablation as a procedure to explore the workings of the brain."

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.

Phineas P. Gage (1823 May 21, 1860) was an American railroad

construction foreman remembered for his improbable survival of an
accident in which a large iron rod was driven completely through his
head, destroying much of his brain's left frontal lobe, and for that injury's
reported effects on his personality and behavior over the remaining
twelve years of his lifeeffects sufficiently profound (for a time at least)
that friends saw him as "no longer Gage.

William James is considered the founder of the sort of thinking called

functionalism.
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.