Cerebellum - History

History

The distinctive appearance of the cerebellum caused even the earliest anatomists to recognize it. Aristotle and Galen, however, did not consider it truly part of the brain: They called it the parencephalon ("same-as-brain"), as opposed to the encephalon or brain proper. Galen was the first to give an extensive description, noting that the cerebellar tissue seemed more solid than the rest of the brain, he speculated that its function is to strengthen the motor nerves.

Further significant developments did not come until the Renaissance. Vesalius discussed the cerebellum briefly, and the anatomy was described more thoroughly by Thomas Willis in 1664. More anatomical work was done during the 18th century, but it was not until early in the 19th century that the first insights into the function of the cerebellum were obtained. Luigi Rolando in 1809 established the key insight that damage to the cerebellum results in motor disturbances. Jean Pierre Flourens in the first half of the 19th century carried out detailed experimental work, which revealed that animals with cerebellar damage can still move, but with a loss of coordination (strange movements, awkward gait, and muscular weakness), and that recovery after the lesion can be nearly complete unless the lesion is very extensive. By the dawn of the 20th century, it was widely accepted that the primary function of the cerebellum relates to motor control; the first half of the 20th century produced several detailed descriptions of the clinical symptoms associated with cerebellar disease in humans.