Paul Emil Flechsig (June 29, 1847 - July 22, 1929) was a German neuroanatomist,
psychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and neuropathologist. Born in
ZwickauZwickau/Saxony in Germany, former seat of the government from south-western region at Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region of Chemnitz-Zwickau. Nowadays it is the capital city of country district Zwickau...
, he spent over fifty years of his medical career at the University of Leipzig. Although Flechsig contributed much in his study of neurological disorders, he is mainly remembered today for his research of
myelinogenesisMyelinogenesis is the process of sequential myelination or development of a myelin sheaths around a nerve fibres of the parts of the central nervous system. The order of development approximates the evolutionary development of the central nervous system....
. Among his students were
Emil KraepelinEmil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. The Encyclopedia of Psychology by H. J. Eysenck identifies him as the founder of contemporary scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological...
and
Oskar VogtOskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein...
(mentor to
Korbinian BrodmannKorbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics. These areas are now usually referred to as Brodmann areas...
). Flechsig was the treating psychiatrist for
Daniel Paul SchreberDaniel Paul Schreber was a German judge who suffered from what was then diagnosed as dementia praecox. He described his second mental illness , making also a brief reference to the first illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness...
, whose memoir inspired
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
to publish a detailed analysis of the case in 1911.
Paul Emil Flechsig (June 29, 1847 - July 22, 1929) was a German neuroanatomist,
psychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
and neuropathologist. Born in
ZwickauZwickau/Saxony in Germany, former seat of the government from south-western region at Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region of Chemnitz-Zwickau. Nowadays it is the capital city of country district Zwickau...
, he spent over fifty years of his medical career at the University of Leipzig. Although Flechsig contributed much in his study of neurological disorders, he is mainly remembered today for his research of
myelinogenesisMyelinogenesis is the process of sequential myelination or development of a myelin sheaths around a nerve fibres of the parts of the central nervous system. The order of development approximates the evolutionary development of the central nervous system....
. Among his students were
Emil KraepelinEmil Kraepelin was a German psychiatrist. The Encyclopedia of Psychology by H. J. Eysenck identifies him as the founder of contemporary scientific psychiatry, as well as of psychopharmacology and psychiatric genetics. Kraepelin believed the chief origin of psychiatric disease to be biological...
and
Oskar VogtOskar Vogt was a German physician and neurologist. He was born in Husum - Schleswig-Holstein...
(mentor to
Korbinian BrodmannKorbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics. These areas are now usually referred to as Brodmann areas...
). Flechsig was the treating psychiatrist for
Daniel Paul SchreberDaniel Paul Schreber was a German judge who suffered from what was then diagnosed as dementia praecox. He described his second mental illness , making also a brief reference to the first illness in his book Memoirs of My Nervous Illness...
, whose memoir inspired
Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud , Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the psychoanalytic school of psychology...
to publish a detailed analysis of the case in 1911. Flechsig's work has still not been rediscovered widely but his map was reprinted and discussed in Fuster's "Cortex and Mind".
MyelinogenesisMyelinogenesis is the process of sequential myelination or development of a myelin sheaths around a nerve fibres of the parts of the central nervous system. The order of development approximates the evolutionary development of the central nervous system....
is a technique he pioneered in which he studied brains of the late term fetus and newborn by staining for
myelinMyelin is a dielectric material that forms a layer, the myelin sheath, usually around only the axon of a neuron. It is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system...
. Between about two months before and after birth, most of the cerebral cortex becomes myelinated. The order in which this happens appears to reflect the evolutionary order of mammals from less to more complex. He derived a map of the cerebral cortex divided not by
histologyHistology is the study of the microscopic anatomy of cells and tissues of plants and animals. It is performed by examining a thin slice of tissue under a light microscope or electron microscope...
(as
Korbinian BrodmannKorbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics. These areas are now usually referred to as Brodmann areas...
did) but by order of myelination.
Flechsig divided the cortical regions into:
- an early myelinating primitive zone, which includes the motor cortex and the visual, auditory, and somatosensory cortex;
- a field bordering the primitive zone that myelinates next;
- a late-myelinating zone, which he called “association”.
The last area of the human cerebral cortex to myelinate is the Dorsolateral Prefrontal cortex. (Flechsig #45, Brodmann areas 9 & 46). This region continues to develop in adolescence and adulthood it is related to executive function and
working memoryWorking memory is a theoretical construct within cognitive psychology as to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information in short-term memory. Many theories exist both as to the theoretical structure of working memory as well as to the role of specific...
.
The "Paul-Flechsig-Institute of Brain Research" at 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...
is an institution established in 1974 in tribute to Flechsig. The institute's scientific emphases is on cellular and molecular aspects of neurodegenerative diseases and glial reactions in the brain and the
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
.
Flechsig's fasciculus or Flechsig's tract is a neurological structure which conveys proprioceptive information from the body to the
cerebellumThe cerebellum is a region of the brain that plays an important role in the integration of sensory perception, coordination and motor control...
.
External links
- Picture, biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory
The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life...
of the Max Planck Institute for the History of ScienceThe Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin was established in March 1994. Its research is primarily devoted to a theoretically oriented history of science, principally of the natural sciences, but with methodological perspectives drawn from the cognitive sciences and from...
- Official site of the Paul-Flechsig-Institute of Brain Research in Leipzig (mainly German, some English)
- Paul Flechsig @ Who Named It
Who Named It? is an English-language dictionary of medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification. Though this is a dictionary, many eponyms and persons are presented in extensive articles with comprehensive bibliographies. It is hosted in Norway and maintained by medical...
; retrieved 4 May 2009