First Primate Brain Map, circa 1917

By Jef Akst First Primate Brain Map, circa 1917 Scale drawing of the left hemisphere of one of Leyton’s and Sherrington’s experiments on a gorilla showing which areas correspond with movements of which parts of the body. Courtesy of the Journal of Experimental Physiology At the turn of the 20th century, British physiologists Charles Scott Sherrington and Albert Sidney Frankau Leyton started poking around in the brains

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At the turn of the 20th century, British physiologists Charles Scott Sherrington and Albert Sidney Frankau Leyton started poking around in the brains of anesthetized great apes in their lab at the University of Liverpool to see what would happen. While their work would never secure the necessary permits in any laboratory today, the data they generated is in every modern neurobiology textbook, albeit in simplified form.

The researchers examined the brains of 22 chimpanzees, three orangutans, three gorillas, and a handful of other animals under deep anesthesia induced by chloroform and ether. Applying mild electrical stimulation to the cortex, they revealed that the control of certain body parts was localized to particular brain regions—a hotly debated topic at the time.

“There had been a lot of arguments about whether functions are localized,” says Roger Lemon, a neurophysiologist at University College London. While cortical stimulation had been shown to elicit ...

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Meet the Author

  • Jef Akst

    Jef Akst was managing editor of The Scientist, where she started as an intern in 2009 after receiving a master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses.

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