Neurotransimitter-Selective Brain Lesions

Abstract As neuroanatomical discoveries in the brain are made, there follows an intense curiosity about function. Frequently, the two initial questions asked are. What happens if the tissue is removed, and what happens if it is activated? Perhaps the first to use an experimental ablation method in animals to study brain function was DuVerney in 1697 (according to Walker, 1957 ). However, it was not until Flourens published his influential book in 1824, and its revision in 1842, that the method became accepted widely enough to displace cranioscopy popularized by the phrenologists (Luciani, 1915 ). Flourens presented the ablation method in great detail and his descriptions of the behavioral effects of the brain damage were far more complete than those of many of today’s investigators. Although many of his conclusions regarding localization of function were soon vigorously challenged, particularly by clinicians, he stimulated a great deal of interest in brain-behavior relationships (Kolb and Whishaw, 1980 ; Young, 1970 ). (1870 ) and (1873 ) combined the ablation method with electrical stimulation techniques to study the motor functions of the cerebral cortex. When selective cortical areas were removed surgically, specific motor pareses were obtained that matched the topographic maps defined by the stimulation.