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Luigi Rolando and his pioneering efforts to
relate structure to function in the nervous system.
The fissure separating the motor
from the sensory cortex and the substantia
gelatinosa capping the posterior horn of the spinal
cord are still known by the name of the Italian
anatomist Rolando, Luigi Rolando was born in Turin,
Italy, in 1773 and died in 1831. His life was not
easy, the first of his problems being the death of
his father when Rolando was still very young. Three
people were to be influential in his life and
career: Father Maffei, his maternal uncle who raised
him; Dr. Cigna, the anatomy professor who discovered
his talent; and Dr. Anformi, a general practitioner
who introduced him to the practice of medicine and
to the best circles of the city. Forced to leave
Turin by the Napoleonic invasion of the country,
Rolando first stopped in Florence, where he learned
about anatomical dissection, drawing, and engraving
and studied the appearance of nervous tissue under
the microscope. Later he went to Sardinia where,
although cut off from European cultural circles, he
developed his major theories. Rolando pioneered the
idea that brain functions could be differentiated
and located in specific areas and discovered the
fixed pattern of cerebral convolutions, highlighting
motor and sensory gyri. He demonstrated the
complexity of the central gray matter of the spinal
cord, describing the "substantia gelatinosa," and he
deduced that nervous structures are connected in a
network of nervous fibers linked by electrical
impulses. Rolando had to struggle for recognition,
however, as the priority of his discoveries was
challenged by the almost contemporaneous work of
Gall and Spurzheim on cerebral localization and of
Flourens on cerebellar function. Nevertheless, his
efforts contributed greatly to the clarification of
brain function. His observations on nervous anatomy
have been especially accurate, as shown by the
nomenclature "fissure of Rolando."