Reading 1

Unit 1- Raeding 1

Page 3

An Early Brain Map

Throughout history, human behavior seemed impossible to understand. Teachers wondered why some students were good at math but other students were not. People Wondered why one neighbor was friendly but another was 5 unfriendly. Parents wondered why one child behaved and another caused trouble. In the early 19th century, a German doctor thought he could answer these complex questions. His name was Franz Joseph Gall.

A NEW THEORY

Dr. Gall believed that the brain was the source of human behavior. He thought it was possible to understand human behavior if we understood how the brain functioned. He believed that each area of the brain was linked to a certain behavior, such as bravery. Furthermore, Dr. Gall wondered if the functions of the brain created bumps on a person’s skull (the skull is the bone around a person’s head). If so, a doctor could learn about a person’s behavior by analyzing these bumps. He could analyze the location and size of the bumps on the skull. The bumps would tell the doctor about the person’s behavior.

Dr. Gall began to test this idea. First he looked at the heads of many people. He located the bumps on their skulls. He measured these bumps. Then he asked the people questions about themselves. He wanted to learn about their behavior. He looked for a link between people’s bumps and their behavior. Finally, Dr. Gall thought he could link every bump on a human skull to a certain brain function. He created a complex map of an average human head. The map had 27 areas. He labeled each of the areas with a brain function. Some of these functions were friendship, music, numbers, a love of children, bravery, humor, and memory. Dr. Gall named this mapping of the human skull “phrenology.”

THE GROWTH OF PHRENOLOGY

Phrenology created great interest around the world. Some people thought Dr. Gall’s ideas were wonderful. They thought his phrenology map was a scientific way to understand human behavior.

In fact, some people learned how to read head bumps. They became phrenologists. Customers went to them to have their head bumps analyzed. They asked the phrenologists for advice about their lives.

PHRENOLOGY’S CRITICS

In contrast, other people made jokes about phrenology and head bumps. They laughed at Dr. Gall and his ideas. They did not think phrenology was scientific. They said it was impossible to know a person’s personality by analyzing head bumps.

In the early 20th century, the study of human behavior became important to scientists. They learned that head bumps could not explain how people behaved. They looked for other explanations. Soon everyone agreed that phrenology was not a science after all. It was only one man’s attempt to understand human behavior.