Mapping and Lesioning the Living Brain

Abstract

It is now well known that the brain is electrically excitable. Physicians frequently make use of electromagnetic properties to monitor or localize brain functions in patients (e.g. EEG, MRI or electrical stimulation of the brain). However, in the nineteenth century, it was accepted as a fact that the cerebral hemispheres were non-excitable ‘by all common psychologic stimuli’ [1]. This dogma prevailed to such an extent that studies that challenged this concept initially had to be performed outside of the universities [2].