James Wenceslas Papez (;Livingston, Kenneth E.

'. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1981 1883–1958) was an American

neuroanatomist Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defi ...

, most famous for his 1937 description of the Papez circuit, a neural pathway in the

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a ve ...

thought to be involved in the cortical control of

emotion Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiology, neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or suffering, displeasure. There is currently no scientific ...

. Specifically, Papez hypothesized that the hippocampus, the cingulate gyrus (Broca's callosal lobe), the hypothalamus, the anterior thalamic nuclei, and the interconnections among these structures constituted a harmonious mechanism which elaborate the functions of emotions.Papez JW. 1937. A proposed mechanism of emotion. 1937. J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 1995 Winter;7(1):103-12. Papez never mentioned Broca's

limbic lobe The limbic lobe is an arc-shaped region of cortex on the medial surface of each cerebral hemisphere of the mammalian brain, consisting of parts of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes. The term is ambiguous, with some authors including the p ...

but others noted that his circuit was very similar to Broca's great limbic lobe.Lima, D.R.,2004. History of Medicine, Medsi, RJ. http://www.editoraguanabara.com.br/ Papez received his MD from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

College of

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

and Surgery. He was a neurologist at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and curator of the

Wilder Brain Collection The Wilder Brain Collection is a collection of human brains maintained by the Cornell University Department of Psychology. The collection was created by professor of anatomy, Burt Green Wilder. Wilder founded the Cornell Brain Society in 1889 to c ...

when he published his 1937 journal article.

References

1883 births 1958 deaths University of Minnesota Medical School alumni American neuroscientists American neurologists American people of Czech descent {{US-physician-stub

See also

References