Carrying on from the input on Brain Development today with Will, I found that there is a large array of events that took place in the subject of neuroscience… As there as far too many to write I have just selected a variety that interested me within the 20^th century.

• In 1909, Harvey Cushing is first to electrically stimulate the human sensory cortex.

Studies involving severe epileptics has shown us that using weak currents, investigators found that the usual responses when stimulating the individuals included, numbness, tingling and feelings of electricity and all these feelings where on the contralateral side.

• The disease, Alzheimer’s, was named by Emil Kraepelin in 1910.

Kraepelin, who was a german psychiatrist that worked closely with Dr. Alzheimer, first named the ‘Alzheimer’s disease’ in the eighth edition of his book, Psychiatrie.

• The intelligence quotient, or QI, was first developed in 1912 by William Stern.

He felt that by investigating the individuality of a person he could then uncover real principle of personality and intelligence. He developed the idea of expressing intelligence test results in the form of a single number, the intelligence quotient.

He looked at individual test scores and focused on “mental ages” which could then be compared to actual ages which could then relate to their intelligence ability. To get the intelligence quotient, he took the mental age and divided it by the chronological age.

• In 1916, Shinobu Ishihara published a set of plates that were used to test colour vision.

The colour test is called, ‘The Ishihara Test’. The test consists of a number of coloured plates which are called Ishihara plates. These plates contain a circle of dots appearing randomised in both colour and size. Within the dots, there are dots of another colour with represents a number or shape visible to those with normal colour vision. However, if you have a colour defect, these numbers or shapes will be invisible or difficult to see.

• B.F. Skinner publishes ‘The Behaviour of Organisms’ in 1938 that describes operant conditioning.

The term, ‘operant conditioning’ was invented by Skinner. Roughly, it means to change the behaviour of a person or animal through the use of either positive or negative reinforcements. If the subject is shown to be doing the desired behaviour, then this is when the reinforcement is given.

• In 1953, Eugene Aserinski and Nathaniel Kleitman describe rapid eye movements (REM) during sleep.

Kleitman and Aserinsky discovered there to be rapid eye movement while a child was sleeping. This led researcher into believing that sleeping involves some sort of learning process.

• In 1956 Rita Levi-Montalcini and Stanley Cohen isolate and purified nerve growth factor.

• The treatment for depression was introduced by Fluoxetine in 1987.

Eli Lilly and Company discovered Fluoxetine. This drug is used for a number is disorders including; major depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, bulimia, and panic disorder. In some cases, it has also been used to treat trichotillomania, a condition where the individual feels the need to pull their hair out, if cognitive behaviour therapy has been unsuccessful.

• 1990 was declared the ‘Decade of the Brain’ by U.S. President George Bush.

• Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel shared the Nobel Prize in 2000.

These men were awarded this prize for their discoveries of signal transduction, which is the message being sent from one nerve cell, to another through a chemical transmitter.