Victorian Pseudosciences: Brain Personality Maps

in 19th-century England, scientists were figuring out that certain parts of our brains were connected with certain parts of our bodies- but they came up with some terrible and misleading ideas that spread without rigorous scientific backing.

Hosted by: Hank Green
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[irishpolyglot]

I'll never use or hear the terms "well-rounded", "highbrow" or "lowbrow" the same ever again knowing their origin... Thanks Scishow :)

[jaybee]

This reminded me of the dimples scene in Django Unchained.

[ArnimSommer]

Let me change your personality *graps a hammer*

[rparl]

A very well rounded show, completely highbrow.

[Master_Therion]

Whoever came up with phrenology suffered from a nasty bump to the head.

[in.articulo.mortis]

In the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett, there is a 'Retrophrenologist' who claimed to be able to change your personality by whacking lumps into your head with a mallet.

[PompeyEyre]

I learnt about this from a Doctor Who fanfic... nice to know the author was incredibly accurate!

[franciscoramirez]

Did anyone else think of the movie Django, where Leo break the skull to show Jamie the three dots claiming that's why black people are "submissive"?

[margerinefly]

I absolutely loved Terry Pratchett's concept of retrophrenology in Men at Arms!

[DrRChandra]

A very early "Stargate SG-1" episode was named "The Broca Divide." I now see the connection.

[Slivertrust]

Paul Broca had some fuckin *INTENSE* mutton chops 3:08

[elidennison]

i find it interesting that we know so much about how the brain functions. and yet so little about how to use it.

[OneOnOne]

It surprises me that Hank didn't mention patient H.M. He's a case study in psychology. A man who's hippocampus was removed in an attempt to stop his epileptic attacks. But this damaged his ability to form new memories to such a point that he basically no longer had the ability to make new explicit memories (ones you can put into words). The world to him became transient, he would forget a task as soon as he had completed it. He could still learn new skills though, despite the fact that he'd forget ever learning them. A more modern person with a similar affliction is Clive Wearing videos of whom exist on youtube.
I'd also like to note for those interested, while specialization like this is no doubt true, in more recent years psychologists have begun moving away from more strict specialization, where functions really are isolated to specific areas.

[Zizumia]

Year: 2216

"Back in the 20th and 21st century, our beliefs on how our bodies worked were pretty skewed, and even funny. Nothing being more funny than our thought on the structure of the brain. In the 19th century, we thought the brain was like a muscle which grew and shrunk with knowledge, they also believed that our brains were broken up into different categories. This theory moved into the 20th, to as late as the mid 21st century. People of this era believed that tiny electrical impulses were the cause of all of our brain's "powers". They also believed that certain parts of the brains contributed to certain personalities. Of course today, we know the brain is a collaboration of microscopic scientists who are constantly at work listening for new information and storing it in massive libraries. When one loses a memory, or cannot remember what they were just taught, our brain scientists were too busy storing our overwhelming amount of files to be paying attention at that moment. We also have a driver scientist, who drives our body with foot peddles and a steering wheel, and even a "conscious" scientist who got a doctorate in Psychology before being stationed to your brain, and he talks to you via a microphone and is literally your "inner voice". Although silly that "electronic pulses" was once believed to be the reason why our brains did what it does, through extensive research, we now know the real truth behind it all."

[omarperezrodriguez]

Thank you Hank Green for your informative videos. 👍🏽

[MrJayPuff]

I love this. I remember you covered a little bit of this in crash course. Im glad you expanded on it, it was interesting.

[TheDaevin]

A Victorian Pseudasciences series is a great idea and I hope you guys make more! Very interesting to me both scientifically and historically!

[feynstein]

"What does Patreon do? We ask you for money so we don't have to charge you." Hank Ruins Patreon.

[YukoValis]

reminds me of that scene from Django Unchained. The one at the dinner table. That was so BS, but a good scene.

[m.pixley]

They had a lot of misplaced theories, but a scientist was awarded a Nobel prize in 2020 for linking bushy eyebrows to narcissism. ...So maybe there is something to be said for studying blood pressure and other things related to the forehead area.