I've seen some interesting theories about the brain lately but noticed that the title I wrote is labeled pseudoscience, which means that the following are proven wrong by modern science. As for why it is still introduced? You'll know when you see it later
When technology was not yet developed, many people were already trying to understand what kind of organ the brain was.
Of course, due to the limitations of technology, the theory at that time may not be complete and cannot be verified either, and it seems very ridiculous with the knowledge we have now.
But we also have to admire human imagination and the interesting hypotheses that scientists come up with when they encounter things they don't understand back then.
Phrenology is one such hypothesis.
Where Did Phrenology Come From?
Phrenology was first proposed by Franz Joseph Gall, a German neuroanatomist. At that time, there were two theories about the brain that were still being debated, one was a distributed brain model, and the other was a localized brain model.
The distributed model proposes that the brain is a whole, divided into different blocks, and each block interacts to produce functions.
The local model, on the other hand, says that the brain is divided into different blocks, each of which can act independently like an organ.
Of course, from today's point of view, the theories on both sides are not quite right, and both are a bit too absolute. But it's clear that Gall is on the local model side. He came up with such a theory when he was 33 years old in 1790 AD
Claims of Phrenology
The claims of phrenology are actually quite interesting. If it wasn't for the fact that scientific development has proved it wrong, I feel that I would have believed it. Here are the claims:
The brain is the organ that governs consciousness
The brain is not a homogeneous (uniform) organ but is divided into many blocks, which work independently and then combined after
The relative size of the blocks determines the strength of each ability
Because the skull covers the brain during development, the shape of the skull can tell which ability of the individual is stronger
Meaning that by touching or measuring the shape of the skull, you can know the personality of the person, and these personalities are innate and cannot be changed. Because the size of the area is determined when your skull develops. For example, if your skull is more prominent in the friendship block, you may be more likely to make friends. On the contrary, if that block is more
An 1883 phrenology chart. Wikipedia
n the beginning, the brain was divided into 27 blocks, then it was added into 33 blocks, and it continued to increase as more characteristics were defined. In the end, it even became a way of fortune-telling. People entered a small pavilion, and then someone measures their skulls. A personality report will be given to tell people who they are.
Of course, it created some morally controversial issues. For example, some people are measured and the result is that their skull shows that they are criminals and they will commit serious crimes in their life. What should we do? Also, people of different races would have different shapes skulls. Does it mean that the personality of the same race will be very similar? This involves the realm of racial discrimination.
Fortunately, the hypothesis was proved wrong in the end, and these issues naturally vanished.
Redress
Well, it doesn't seem that fair to say that the hypothesis is wrong. Because, in fact, it is actually right in many aspects.
First of all, the brain can really be seen as having many blocks, and many functions are actually local instead of processed by the whole brain. Of course, it is much more complicated than Gall thinks. There is mutual communication between different blocks to achieve more advanced functions, but what he advocated is not entirely wrong.
Furthermore, the relative sizes of the blocks sometimes really represent the strength of the function. The more you use the function, the bigger the block will become. Such as the hippocampus of a taxi driver is bigger than that of an average person, because they need to remember the road in the whole area. (Although it seems that they all use Google Map now) The Broca's area in the brain is also larger in people who have learned different languages. All these phenomena prove that the relative size of brain blocks sometimes really determines the strength of their function. Of course, we now know that personality can be changed day by day, so it's impossible to tell people’s characteristics just by looking at their skulls. It's still very interesting that Gull seems to have predicted that the relative size of each block determines the strength of the function.
Influence of Phrenology
Although phrenology is a pseudoscience, its contribution to subsequent brain research cannot be underestimated. It has become the cornerstone of the theory that brain function can be divided. Many archaeologists still use the size of a region inside the skull to judge the functions of creatures in that historical period and then use other unearthed artifacts to restore ancient humanoids' life.
Epilogue
It is very interesting, right? Although there are many absurd and unprovable things in this theory, which are interesting from the current point of view, people at that time were convinced! It makes me wonder if the science we believe in now will be ridiculous a few hundred years later. But because of these crazy theories, our understanding of the brain can be advanced step by step, and maybe one day we can truly unravel the secrets of the human brain. If you have any other ideas, please leave me a comment down below!
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