The anatomy of the brain – learned over the centuries

This article reports the evolution and consolidation of the knowledge of neuroanatomy through the analysis of its history. Thus, we propose to describe in a historical review to summarize the main theories and concepts that emerged throughout brain anatomy history and understand how the socio-historical context can reflect on the nature of scientific knowledge. Therefore, among the diverse scientists, anatomists, doctors, and philosophers who were part of this history, there was a strong influence of the studies of Claudius Galen (AD 129-210), Leonardo da Vinci (1452- 1519), Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), Franciscus Sylvius (1614-1672), Luigi Rolando (1773-1831), Pierre Paul Broca (1824-1880), Carl Wernicke (1848-1905), Korbinian Brodmann (1868-1918), Wilder Penfield (1891-1976), Mahmut Gazi Yasargil (1925), and Albert Loren Rhoton Jr. (1932-2016) on the fundamentals of neuroanatomy.