Luigi Rolando (16 June 1773,

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

– 20 April 1831,

) was an Italian

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

known for his pioneering research in brain localization of function. He studied medicine in Turin, later continuing his education in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, where he studied

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design on a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a Burin (engraving), burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or Glass engraving, glass ar ...

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

, anatomical dissection, and conducted microscopic investigations of

nerve tissue Nervous tissue, also called neural tissue, is the main tissue component of the nervous system. The nervous system regulates and controls body functions and activity. It consists of two parts: the central nervous system (CNS) comprising the brain ...

. From 1804 he was a professor at the University of Sassari, and in 1814 was appointed professor of anatomy at the

University of Turin The University of Turin (Italian language, Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Torino'', UNITO) is a public university, public research university in the city of Turin, in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region of Italy. It is one of the List ...

. As a University of Turin professor, he devoted his life to the study of brain anatomy. A range of neuroanatomical and neurological entities are named after him: the Rolandic vein, the Rolandic artery (central sulcal artery), the pre-Rolandic artery (precentral sulcal artery), the Rolandic operculum (post-central operculum), the Rolandic area ( primary motor cortex), the substantia gelatinosa of Rolando, the fissure of Rolando (central sulcus) and Rolandic epilepsy.

Written works

* ''Saggio sopra la vera struttura del cervello dell'uomo e degli animali e sopra le funzioni del sistema nervoso'', (1809) – Essay on the brain structure of humans and animals, and functions of the

nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the complex system, highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its behavior, actions and sense, sensory information by transmitting action potential, signals to and from different parts of its body. Th ...

. * ''Inductions physiologiques et pathologiques sur les differentes espèces...'', (translation into French by Antoine Jacques Louis Jourdan, François Gabriel Boisseau), 1822 * ''Ricerche anatomiche sulla struttura del midollo spinale'', (1824) – Anatomical structure of the

spinal cord The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue that extends from the medulla oblongata in the lower brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone) of vertebrate animals. The center of the spinal c ...

. * ''Saggio sopra la vera struttura del cervello e sopra le funzioni del sistema nervoso''; Volumes 1–2, 1828 * ''Manuale di anatomia fisiologica'', (1829) – Textbook of

physiological Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

anatomy. * ''Della struttura degli emisferi cerebrali'' (1830) – Structure of the

cerebral hemisphere The vertebrate cerebrum (brain) is formed by two cerebral hemispheres that are separated by a groove, the longitudinal fissure. The brain can thus be described as being divided into left and right cerebral hemispheres. Each of these hemispheres ...

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References

External links

Picture at torinoscienza.it
1773 births 1831 deaths Italian anatomists Physicians from Turin Academic staff of the University of Sassari Academic staff of the University of Turin Scientists from the Kingdom of Sardinia Physicians from the Kingdom of Sardinia {{Italy-med-bio-stub