Victor Leborgne’s brain is probably the most studied in the history of neuroscience, currently located at the Dupuytren Museum of Pathological Anatomy in Paris and has been examined thousands of times; however, until a few years ago little was known about this man. to whom we owe important scientific discoveries.
Victor Leborgne’s brain has been in the museum for more than a century and thanks to him, science was able to identify the area that controls language.
- There is no record of him authorizing this gift to science.
- And the truth is that we owe him much.
- His sufferings have illuminated the path of medicine.
“Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. -Adam Smith-
Cezary W. Domanski, a psychologist and science historian at Marie Curie University in Sklodowska, Poland, decided to investigate the story of Victor Leborgne.
Until his research began, only this patient’s last name was known, but he had no idea what his story was.
The case of Victor Leborgne, presented in 1861 by Dr. Paul Broca at the Society of Anthropology in Paris, was an important neurological discovery.
The doctor had been able to identify the region of the brain on which the tongue depended, which has since been known as the Broca area.
Broca was not the first to point out that the tongue probably came from the frontal lobe, however, at the time, the majority view was that mental functions came from the hollow cavities of the brain.
It was thought that the cerebral cortex was nothing more than a shell made of blood vessels and tissues, virtually without function.
The brain that was used to prove his theory belonged to a man Broca simply called Mr. Leborgne. We don’t know why he did this, because at the time, there were no reservations about patient data. We just knew he was a man, who had lost his speech.
The Polish historian Domanski began his research in Paris and I managed to obtain the death certificate of a man named Victor Leborgne, who coincided with the dates when Dr. Broca made his famous presentation, and from then on he was able to reconstruct the details. of history.
Victor Leborgne was born on 21 July 1820 in Moret-sur-Loing, a region of Francia. Su father was a schoolteacher named Pierre Leborgne, and his mother was a humble woman named Margueritte Savard. The couple had six children and Victor was their father. Room.
From an early age, Leborgne began to suffer epileptic seizures, despite this, Victor led a relatively normal life.
He trained as a trainer, a handcrafted method that made wood molds for shoe manufacturers. In their home region, shoe stores were a very common business.
Everything points to Leborgne starting to have increasingly continuous and severe epileptic seizures. At 30, he had a very strong attack that left him speechless.
He arrived at the hospital in Bitre two months after losing his speech, where he remained for the next 21 years of his life, until his death.
At first, Victor Leborgne had no other problems besides his inability to speak. Apparently, he understood everything he was told, but when he wanted to talk, he just exclaimed the syllroom “Tan”.
Today, it is believed to be a reminder of tanneries, which in French were called a tanning mill.
After about 10 years, Leborgne began to show signs of deterioration: the right arm and leg weakened. Then he began to lose his sight and cognitive abilities, his depression led him to stay in bed for several years and he also suffered from gangrene, that’s when he was referred to Dr. Broca.
After Victor Leborgne’s death, Broca performed the autopsy and found the anomaly in the frontal lobe, allowing him to test his hypothesis and forever change neuroscience.
Humanity owes much to this man who suffered limitations for 21 years in a hospital that had even forgotten his own name.