James Wenceslas Papez (;Livingston, Kenneth E.

'. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1981 1883–1958) was an American neuroanatomist, most famous for his 1937 description of the Papez circuit, a

neural In Biology, 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 ...

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 v ...

thought to be involved in the cortical control of

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

. 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 university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

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 pract ...

and

Surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

. 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 teach an ...

and curator of the Wilder Brain Collection 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