Angelo Mosso (30 May 1846 – 24 November 1910) is the 19th century

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

who invented the first

neuroimaging Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incr ...

technique ever, known as 'human circulation balance'. Mosso began by recording the pulsation of the human cortex in

patients A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ca ...

with skull defects following neurosurgical procedures. From his findings that these pulsations change during mental activity, he inferred that during mental activities blood flow increases to the brain. Remarkably, Mosso invented the 'human circulation balance', only recently rediscovered, to non-invasively measure the redistribution of blood during emotional and intellectual activity also in healthy subjects: this is therefore regarded as the first

technique ever, forerunner of the more refined techniques of

fMRI Functional magnetic resonance imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) measures brain activity by detecting changes associated with blood flow. This technique relies on the fact that cerebral blood flow and neuronal activation are coupled. When an area ...

, and

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. He was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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 ...

, studied medicine there and in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico a ...

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as we ...

, and

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, and was appointed

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

(1876) and professor of

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemica ...

(1879) at Turin. He invented various instruments to measure the

pulse In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

and experimented and wrote upon the variation in the volume of the pulse during

sleep Sleep is a sedentary state of mind and body. It is characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited Perception, sensory activity, reduced muscle activity and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefuln ...

, mental activity, or emotion. In 1900–01 he visited the

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and embodied the results of his observations in ''Democrazia nella religione e nella scienza: studi sull' America'' (1901). In 1882 he founded with Emery the ''Archives Italiennes de Biologie'', in which journal most of his essays appeared. Among his other works are: * ''Die Diagnostik des Pulses'' (1879) * ''Sulla paura'' (1884) * ''La paura'' (1891; English translation by E. Lough and F. Kiesow
''Fear''
London, 1896) * ''La fatica'' (1891; English translation by M. A. and W. B. Drummond
''Fatigue''
New York, 1904)
''La Temperatura del cervello''
(1894)
''Fisiologia dell' uomo sulle Alpi''
(1897; third edition, 1909); English translation, 1898 * ''Mens Sana in Corpore Sano'' (1903) * ''Vita moderna degli Italiani'' (1905)
''Escursioni nel mediterraneo e gli scavi di Creta''
(1907; second edition, 1910; English translation, ''The Palaces of

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

and their Builders'', New York, 1907) * ''La preistoria: original della civilta mediterranea'' (1910; English translation by M. C. Harrison
''The Dawn of Mediterranean Civilization''
New York, 1911) * ''Nuovo Antologia'' (in collaboration) Mosso was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for prom ...

in 1897.

Inventions

Mosso's ergograph in Verdin's catalogs, 1890 and 1904

*Mosso's balance, rediscovered by Stefano Sandrone and colleagues * Mosso's ergograph — (1890) An apparatus for recording the force and frequency of flexion of the fingersErgograph according to Mosso, modified by Lombard
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin * Mosso's sphygmomanometer — An instrument for measuring blood pressure in the arteries : The American Illustrated Medical Dictionary (1938)

References

External links

* * *
Biography in English

Mosso's first neuroimaging experiment ever

Biography in Italian

Short biography and bibliography
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. Th ...

of the

Max Planck Institute for the History of Science The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

Some places and memories related to Angelo Mosso
o
Himetop – The History of Medicine Topographical Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosso, Angelo 1846 births 1910 deaths Italian physiologists Italian male writers 19th-century Italian inventors Physicians from Turin Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences