{"title":"Pliny the Elder: Lessons from the Naturalist as an Early Neuroscientist.","authors":"Duong T Chu, Mattia Rosso, Jonathan D Santoro","doi":"10.1177/10738584211026527","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pliny the Elder was a prolific Roman author, naturalist, and military leader. Yet, his impact on modern-day neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology has been little explored. Here, we aimed to trace the origins of our current understanding of the brain in ancient Rome through Pliny and his work, <i>Natural History</i>. As his magnum opus, this 37-book tome catalogs the facts and observations of natural life collected by Pliny, reflecting the knowledge of his time. Following the cephalocentric school of thought, Pliny places the brain as an agent for consciousness and details its diseases. Further, we explore Pliny's methods, which allow him to build a thorough collection of clinical descriptions and remedies. This body of work serves as an important lesson for future neuroscientists on the power of observation, the role of the humanities, and the necessity of understanding the origin of modern scientific thinking.</p>","PeriodicalId":49753,"journal":{"name":"Neuroscientist","volume":"29 2","pages":"150-157"},"PeriodicalIF":3.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1177/10738584211026527","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Neuroscientist","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10738584211026527","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CLINICAL NEUROLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Pliny the Elder was a prolific Roman author, naturalist, and military leader. Yet, his impact on modern-day neuroscience, psychiatry, and neurology has been little explored. Here, we aimed to trace the origins of our current understanding of the brain in ancient Rome through Pliny and his work, Natural History. As his magnum opus, this 37-book tome catalogs the facts and observations of natural life collected by Pliny, reflecting the knowledge of his time. Following the cephalocentric school of thought, Pliny places the brain as an agent for consciousness and details its diseases. Further, we explore Pliny's methods, which allow him to build a thorough collection of clinical descriptions and remedies. This body of work serves as an important lesson for future neuroscientists on the power of observation, the role of the humanities, and the necessity of understanding the origin of modern scientific thinking.
期刊介绍：
Edited by Stephen G. Waxman, The Neuroscientist (NRO) reviews and evaluates the noteworthy advances and key trends in molecular, cellular, developmental, behavioral systems, and cognitive neuroscience in a unique disease-relevant format. Aimed at basic neuroscientists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, and psychiatrists in research, academic, and clinical settings, The Neuroscientist reviews and updates the most important new and emerging basic and clinical neuroscience research.
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