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Showing posts from October, 2016

Spirit to Autoantibodies- Journey of Limbic Disorders from Philosophy to Affective Neuroscience

“Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance” Will Durant Since the inception of human society, people have been intrigued about the mystery of human behavior and emotions. Scholars came up with different explanations based on existing belief system, knowledge and evidences. Greek philosopher Aristotle believed heart as center of intelligence and emotions. Few centuries later, another Greek philosopher Galen explained that animal spirit originates in the heart and travels via the circulatory system to brain. Galen described his assumptions based on dissection of corpse, and further elaborated that cerebral ventricles are the epicenter of reasons and emotions. In the medieval period, accurate reproduction of images by artists like Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rembrandt as well as rapid dissemination of knowledge by printing press, led to better understanding of human neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. As a result, by the end of eighteenth century, knowledge of huma