Procedures and complications in late-nineteenth-century experimental neuroanatomical research exemplified by articles of Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857–1938)
| Autor: | J. Wayne Lazar |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Central Nervous System
Biomedical Research General Neuroscience Comparability Brain History 19th Century 06 humanities and the arts History 20th Century Group comparison United States Neuroanatomy 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine 060105 history of science technology & medicine History and Philosophy of Science Data Interpretation Statistical Humans 0601 history and archaeology Neurology (clinical) Psychology 030217 neurology & neurosurgery Brain function Cognitive psychology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of the History of the Neurosciences. 27:145-164 |
| ISSN: | 1744-5213 0964-704X |
| DOI: | 10.1080/0964704x.2018.1445401 |
| Popis: | Henry Herbert Donaldson (1857-1938) was a leader in neurological research in the United States for several decades, beginning about 1890. A detailed account of three of his earliest publications shows the neuroanatomical procedures involved in the study of the relation of brain and intelligence during the late-nineteenth-century in America. Two of the articles, published in September 1890 and December 1891, were titled, "Anatomical Observations on the Brain and Several Sense-Organs of the Blind Deaf-Mute, Laura Dewy Bridgman (1829-1889)"; the third, published in August 1892, used the information from the first two to delimit the extent of the visual processing area of the human cortex. Donaldson's procedures included brain cuttings and measures of macroscopic brain structures, histology of cellular structures, attempts to relate macroscopic brain structures with brain functions, data corrections, estimations, comparisons, and statistics. These procedures provide a view of the relative thoroughness, accuracy, and comparability of the various neuroanatomical techniques in use at that time and of Donaldson's implementation of the techniques. Donaldson's brain cutting techniques were much more comparable than his measurement techniques. The latter could be quite precise, but they were fraught with lack of standardized procedures that made corrections and estimations necessary when making data comparisons across studies. Donaldson emphasized these incompatibilities, implying a need for standardization. Statistical procedures were the least thorough and effective. His, and the field's, total complement of statistical techniques consisted of mean and range, which severely limited his ability to make complicated assessments. This limitation was not necessarily supplemented by stringent control group comparisons. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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