The gyri of the brain are thought to have been first named “coils” by Praxagoras of Cos c300 BC and by Erasistratus c260 BC. Vesalius amplified the description.1

Thomas Willis believed that: “movement is initiated in the cerebrum . . ..”2

Vicq d’Azyr described the convolutions in 1786 noting the differences in morphology in different animals. Magendie similarly had noticed that: “The number, the volume, the disposition of the circumconvolutions are variable . . .”3

The attachment of eponyms to cerebral fissures started with the fissure of Sylvius in 1663, though it had been clearly noted by Casper Bartholin (1585–1629), an anatomist in Denmark. The second structure to be so dignified was the fissure of Rolando in 1839.

Rolando observed the precentral and postcentral gyri on either side …