Rose F Clifford
J Hist Neurosci. 2009 Jul;18(3):239-47. doi: 10.1080/09647040802025052.
Fragments of neurology can be found in the oldest medical writings in antiquity. Recognizable cerebral localization is seen in Egyptian medical papyri. Most notably, the Edwin Smith papyrus describes hemiplegia after a head injury. Similar echoes can be seen in Homer, the Bible, and the pre-Hippocratic writer Alcmaeon of Croton. While Biblical writers thought that the heart was the seat of the soul, Hippocratic writers located it in the head. Alexandrian anatomists described the nerves, and Galen developed the ventricular theory of cognition whereby mental functions are classified and localized in one of the cerebral ventricles. Medieval scholars, including the early Church Fathers, modified Galenic ventricular theory so as to make it a dynamic model of cognition. Physicians in antiquity subdivided the brain into separate areas and attributed to them different functions, a phenomenon that connects them with modern neurologists.
神经病学的片段可以在古代最古老的医学著作中找到。在埃及医学纸草书中可以看到可识别的大脑定位。最值得注意的是，《埃德温·史密斯纸草书》描述了头部受伤后的偏瘫。在荷马、《圣经》以及前希波克拉底时期的作家克罗顿的阿尔克迈翁的作品中也能看到类似的记载。虽然《圣经》的作者认为心脏是灵魂的所在之处，但希波克拉底学派的作者则将其定位于头部。亚历山大里亚的解剖学家描述了神经，盖伦发展了认知的脑室理论，据此将心理功能分类并定位于其中一个脑室。包括早期教会教父在内的中世纪学者对盖伦的脑室理论进行了修改，使其成为一种动态的认知模型。古代的医生将大脑细分为不同区域，并赋予它们不同的功能，这一现象将他们与现代神经学家联系了起来。
