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Full Idea
Even when an animals heart was stopped [by hand] it continued its muted whimpers, …but when the brain was pressed the animal stopped making a noise and became unconscious.
Gist of Idea
Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that
Source
report of Galen (The soul's dependence on the body [c.170]) by Matthew Cobb - The Idea of the Brain 1
Book Ref
Cobb,Matthew: 'The Idea of the Brain' [Penguin 2020], p.23
A Reaction
It's not that the ancients didn't do science. It's that ancient people paid no attention to what their scientists discovered.
Related Idea
Idea 23220 The brain contains memory and reason, and is the source of sensation and decision [Galen]
| 20914 | The directive centre is located in the whole head [Democritus, by Ps-Plutarch] |
| 13154 | Do we think and experience with blood, air or fire, or could it be our brain? [Plato] |
| 23218 | The brain has no responsibility for sensations, which occur in the heart [Aristotle] |
| 23219 | Stopping the heart doesn't terminate activity; pressing the brain does that [Galen, by Cobb] |
| 24027 | Nerves and movement originate in the brain, where imagination moves them [Descartes] |
| 7882 | Researching phenomenal consciousness is peculiar, because the concepts involved are peculiar [Papineau] |
| 2952 | A 1988 estimate gave the brain 3 x 10-to-the-14 synaptic junctions [Lockwood] |
| 4902 | Pain doesn't have one brain location, but is linked to attention and emotion [Carter,R] |
| 4904 | Proper brains appear at seven weeks, and neonates have as many neurons as adults do [Carter,R] |
| 4915 | In primates, brain size correlates closely with size of social group [Carter,R] |
| 4932 | A conscious state endures for about 100 milliseconds, known as the 'specious present' [Edelman/Tononi] |
| 23216 | The brain is not passive, and merely processing inputs; it is active, and intervenes in the world [Cobb] |
| 23226 | There is a single mouse neuron which has 862 inputs and 626 outputs [Cobb] |
| 23513 | Single neurons can carry out complex functions [Seth] |
| 23514 | The cerbellum has a huge number of neurons, but little involvement in consciousness [Seth] |