Vicq d’Azyr, a physician and artist, described the brain’s convolutions in 1786, noting differences in morphology in other animals. Magendie had written similarly.

Early attempts to correlate the cerebral anatomy to function by observed neurological deficits began in the 1820s, the result of the work of Franz Gall,¹ Bouillaud, Robert Todd, Rolando, and many others (references in).² Pierre Gratiolet and Francois Leuret mapped the folds and fissures of the cerebral cortex, and named the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes.

It was Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918) who refined nomenclature by numbering discrete cortical areas in maps—scorned with arguable justification by Henry Head.

Brodmann was born at Liggersdorf, Hohenzollern. He qualified at Freiburg in 1895. An attack of diphtheria halted his progress but he became Assistant to the Neurological Clinic at Alexanderbad im …