• Question: how did people discover brains?

    Asked by mkershaw to Tim, Damien, Suzi on 23 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by lilsimmo.
    • Photo: Tim Fosker

      Tim Fosker answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Hi @mkershaw

      Great question, but I’m afraid I don’t know the answer. The first experiments would have been dissections. At one point in history some surgeons did live human dissections to try and understand how parts of the body worked. Understanding how parts of the brain work has been really helped by the invention of brain scanning techniques (neuroimaging).

      Sorry I don’t know the history of the brain’s discovery, but let me know if you find out.

    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 23 Jun 2011:

      Hi @mkershaw and @lilsimmo

      I don’t know I’m afraid, I imagine the first time someone smashed open a skull they found a brain in there! But I doubt they knew what it was, or how important it was!

      As for how they discovered what it was for, I think Tim’s answer is good. They’ve have started off looking at dead bodies, then probably live ones.

      As it is we’re still really far from truly understanding what the brain does!

      Hope this helps!

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