Schiller F
Department of the History of Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, USA.
J Hist Neurosci. 1995 Sep-Dec;4(3-4):155-65. doi: 10.1080/09647049509525636.
Since antiquity this tiny intracranial appendicular organ has aroused sexual connotations and denials. Controversial and enigmatic, it played a significant part in the development of endocrinology and even neurosurgery. What was its histology, what was its role as a gland so intimately attached to the brain? What did comparative anatomists make of it in the light of its function as a 'third eye?' Mysticism and the famous Cartesian apothegm placed it in the center of Eastern and Western approaches to the mind-body problem and to mental disorders. The latter were connected with the common calcifications, so helpful in the radiological diagnosis of brain shifts due to mass lesions. Undefeated, even spurred by continuing uncertainties, researchers keep looking into this 'photo-neuro-endocrine transducer.'
自古以来，这个小小的颅内附属器官就引发了性方面的联想与否定。它充满争议且神秘莫测，在内分泌学甚至神经外科的发展过程中扮演了重要角色。它的组织学结构是怎样的？作为一个与大脑紧密相连的腺体，它发挥着怎样的作用？鉴于其作为“第三只眼”的功能，比较解剖学家对它有何见解？神秘主义以及著名的笛卡尔格言将其置于东西方解决身心问题及精神障碍方法的核心位置。后者与常见的钙化有关，而钙化在因占位性病变导致的脑移位的放射学诊断中很有帮助。尽管存在持续的不确定性，研究人员仍未放弃，甚至受到激励，不断深入研究这个“光神经内分泌转换器”。
