Abstract
Knowledge of neuroscience flourished during and in the wake of the era of frontal lobotomy, as a byproduct of psychosurgery in the late 1930s and 1940s, revealing fascinating neural pathways and neurophysiologic mechanisms of the limbic system for the formulation of emotions, memory, and human behavior. The creation of the Klüver-Bucy syndrome in monkeys opened new horizons in the pursuit of knowledge in human behavior and neuropathology. In the 1950s specialized functional neurosurgery was developed in association with stereotactic neurosurgery; deep brain electrodes were implanted for more precise recording of brain electrical activity in the evaluation and treatment of intractable mental disorders, including schizophrenia, “pathologic aggression,” and psychomotor seizures in temporal lobe epilepsy. Psychosurgical procedures involved deep brain stimulation of the limbic system, as well as ablative procedures, such as cingulotomy and thalamotomy. The history of these developments up to the 21st century will continue in this three-part essay-editorial, exclusively researched and written for the readers of Surgical Neurology International.
Highlights
One of the beneficial byproducts of frontal lobe surgery was the anatomic and physiologic knowledge that accumulated in the neurosciences from observations made both from animal experiments and human operations
Lobotomy studies revealed that ablative surgery of the orbitofrontal cortex resulted in damage to the limbic and autonomic system connections.[13]
Dr Paul Yakovlev, a Surgical Neurology International 2013, 4:75 neuropathologist at Harvard, and associates studying white matter degeneration found that the cingulate gyrus was involved in lobotomy surgery regardless of the surgical approach
Summary
Mental illness, and the brain – A brief history of psychosurgery: Part 2 – From the limbic system and cingulotomy to deep brain stimulation. Clinical Professor of Neurosurgery (ret.) and Adjunct Professor of Medical History (ret.), Mercer University School of Medicine; President, www.haciendapub.com, Macon, Georgia, USA. This article may be cited as: Faria MA.Violence, mental illness, and the brain - A brief history of psychosurgery: Part 2 - From the limbic system and cingulotomy to deep brain stimulation. Available FREE in open access from: http://www.surgicalneurologyint.com/text.asp?2013/4/1/75/112825
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