Korbinian Brodmann (17 November 1868 – 22 August 1918) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
neurologist who became famous for his definition of the
cerebral cortexThe cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It constitutes the outermost layer of the cerebrum. In preserved brains, it has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter"...
into 52 distinct regions from their
cytoarchitectonicCytoarchitecture is the cellular composition of a bodily structure.In biology, it refers to the arrangement of cells in a tissue, and in neuroscience it refers specifically to the arrangement of neuronal soma in the brain....
(histological) characteristics. These areas are now usually referred to as
Brodmann areaA Brodmann area is a region of the cortex defined based on its cytoarchitecture, or organization of cells.Brodmann areas were originally defined and numbered by Korbinian Brodmann based on the organization of neurons he observed in the cortex using the Nissl stain...
s. Some of these areas were later associated to nervous functions, such as areas 41 and 42 in the
temporal lobeThe temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both the left and right hemispheres of the brain....
(related to
hearingHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
), areas 1, 2 and 3 in the postcentral gyrus of the
parietal lobeThe parietal lobe is a lobe in the brain. It is positioned above the occipital lobe and behind the frontal lobe....
(the
somatosensoryThe somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception , and nociception . The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal...
region), and the areas 17 and
18-Human:Brodmann area 18, or BA18, is part of the occipital cortex in the human brain. It accounts for the bulk of the volume of the occipital lobe....
in the
occipital lobeThe occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1...
(the primary
visualThe visual system is the part of the central nervous system which enables organisms to see.It interprets the information from visible light to build a representation of the world surrounding the body...
areas).
Brodmann studied
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
,
WürzburgWürzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
FreiburgFreiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Located in the extreme south-west of the country, Freiburg straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the...
, where he received his medical diploma in 1895.
Korbinian Brodmann (17 November 1868 – 22 August 1918) was a
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
neurologist who became famous for his definition of the
cerebral cortexThe cerebral cortex is a structure within the brain that plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It constitutes the outermost layer of the cerebrum. In preserved brains, it has a grey color, hence the name "grey matter"...
into 52 distinct regions from their
cytoarchitectonicCytoarchitecture is the cellular composition of a bodily structure.In biology, it refers to the arrangement of cells in a tissue, and in neuroscience it refers specifically to the arrangement of neuronal soma in the brain....
(histological) characteristics. These areas are now usually referred to as
Brodmann areaA Brodmann area is a region of the cortex defined based on its cytoarchitecture, or organization of cells.Brodmann areas were originally defined and numbered by Korbinian Brodmann based on the organization of neurons he observed in the cortex using the Nissl stain...
s. Some of these areas were later associated to nervous functions, such as areas 41 and 42 in the
temporal lobeThe temporal lobe is a region of the cerebral cortex that is located beneath the Sylvian fissure on both the left and right hemispheres of the brain....
(related to
hearingHearing is one of the traditional five senses. It is the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations via an organ such as the ear...
), areas 1, 2 and 3 in the postcentral gyrus of the
parietal lobeThe parietal lobe is a lobe in the brain. It is positioned above the occipital lobe and behind the frontal lobe....
(the
somatosensoryThe somatosensory system is a diverse sensory system comprising the receptors and processing centres to produce the sensory modalities such as touch, temperature, proprioception , and nociception . The sensory receptors cover the skin and epithelia, skeletal muscles, bones and joints, internal...
region), and the areas 17 and
18-Human:Brodmann area 18, or BA18, is part of the occipital cortex in the human brain. It accounts for the bulk of the volume of the occipital lobe....
in the
occipital lobeThe occipital lobe is the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex. The primary visual cortex is Brodmann area 17, commonly called V1...
(the primary
visualThe visual system is the part of the central nervous system which enables organisms to see.It interprets the information from visible light to build a representation of the world surrounding the body...
areas).
Brodmann studied
medicineMedicine is the art and science of healing. It encompasses a range of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
,
WürzburgWürzburg is a city in the region of Franconia which lies in the northern tip of Bavaria, Germany. Located on the Main River, it is the capital of the Regierungsbezirk Lower Franconia. The regional dialect is Franconian....
,
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
and
FreiburgFreiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Located in the extreme south-west of the country, Freiburg straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the...
, where he received his medical diploma in 1895. Subsequently he studied at the Medical School in the
University of LausanneThe University of Lausanne or UNIL in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. Today about 12,000 students and 2200 researchers study and work at the university...
in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, and then worked in the University Clinic in Munich. He got a
doctor of medicineThe Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians...
degree from the
University of LeipzigThe University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in Europe and the second-oldest university in Germany...
in 1898, with a thesis on chronic ependymal sclerosis. He worked also in the Psychiatric Clinic in the University of Jena, with
Ludwig BinswangerLudwig Binswanger was a Swiss psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of existential psychology. His grandfather was founder of the "Bellevue Sanatorium" in Kreuzlingen, and his uncle Otto Binswanger was a professor of psychiatry at the University of Jena.In 1907 Binswanger received his medical...
, and in the Municipal Mental Asylum in
FrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2008 population of 670,000. The urban area had an estimated population of 2.26 million in 2001...
, from 1900 to 1901. There, he met
Alois AlzheimerAloysius "Alois" Alzheimer, was a German psychiatrist and neuropathologist and a colleague of Emil Kraepelin...
, who was influential in his decision to pursue neuroscientific basic research.
Following this, Brodmann started to work in 1901 with
CécileCecile Vogt-Mugnier was a French neurologist from Haute-Savoie.She obtained her medical doctorate in Paris and was the student of Pierre Marie. There she met her future husband, Oskar Vogt, when he came to Paris to work with Joseph Jules Déjérine...
and
Oskar VogtOskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein...
at the private institute "Neurobiologische Zentralstation" in Berlin, and in 1902 in the Neurobiological Laboratory of the University of Berlin. In 1915 he joined the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung (Institute for Brain Research).
In 1909 he published his original research on cortical cytoarchitectonics in
"Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Großhirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues" (Comparative Localization Studies in the Brain Cortex, its Fundamentals Represented on the Basis of its Cellular Architecture).
In the following years he worked at the University of Tübingen, where he was habilitated and made a full professor in 1913, and from 1910 to 1916 as physician and chairman of the Anatomical Laboratory at the University Psychiatric Clinic. In 1916 he moved to
HalleHalle is the largest city in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
in order to work in the Nietleben Municipal Hospital. Finally, in 1918, he accepted an invitation from the University of Munich to direct the group of histology at Psychiatric Research Center.
He died in Munich rather suddenly of a generalized septic infection following a
pneumoniaPneumonia is an inflammatory illness of the lung. Frequently, it is described as lung parenchyma/alveolar inflammation and abnormal alveolar filling with fluid ....
, barely under 50 years of age on 22 August 1918.
Books
- Korbinian Brodmann, Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde in ihren Prinzipien dargestellt auf Grund des Zellenbaues, Johann Ambrosius Barth Verlag, Leipzig
Leipzig is, with a population of 515,459, the largest city in the federal state of Saxony, Germany.-Origins:Leipzig's name is derived from the Slavic word Lipsk, which means "settlement where the lime trees stand"....
, 1909.
- Korbinian Brodmann, Brodmann's 'Localisation in the Cerebral Cortex, Smith-Gordon, London
[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
, UK, 1909/1994. ISBN 1-85463-028-8. English translation by Laurence Garey of the German book.
External links