Korbinian Brodmann
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Early life
German neuropsychologist Korbinian Brodmann (1868-1918) was born in Liggersdorf, Hohenzollern on November 17, 1868. He studied medicine at the Universities of Munich, Wurzburg, Berlin, and Freiburg but became truly interested in neurology and psychiatry during his bout of diphtheria in the summer of 1896. While being cared for at a sanatorium in northern Bavaria, Brodmann met Oskar Vogt whose influence caused him to study psychiatry, neurology, and brain anatomy in Berlin. He subsequently worked at a pathological institute and a mental asylum.
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Contribution to Neuroscience
Brodmann is most famous for his revolutionary study of the comparative cytoarchitectonics of mammalian cortex. His new model of the structure of the brain put to rest any sort of confusion regarding brain area nomenclature. He described a new and totally different cytoarchitectonic structure of the pre- and postcentral gyri in the human brain and proposed that the human brain was organized just as the brains of all other mammals are organized. Brodmann stated that the brain consists of six layers, which are made up of 52 individual and histologically differing parts. As a result he created a numbering system that is still used by neuropsychologists today. Brodmann's map of the brain is shown below.
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Late life
Despite his major contribution to neuroscience, Brodmann's career was riddled with misfortune. His reputation was marred when the Medical Faculty at the University of Berlin failed to accept his "Habilitation" thesis on the prosimian cortex. Financial instability caused him to take several different teaching positions from school to school until his untimely death in 1918; Brodmann died from pneumonia complicated by septicemia.
