Luigi Rolando (16 June 1773,

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 ...

– 20 April 1831,

) was an Italian

anatomist Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the 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 science, having it ...

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

, where he studied

engraving Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an in ...

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayo ...

, anatomical dissection, and conducted microscopic investigations of nerve tissue. From 1804 he was a professor at the

University of Sassari The University of Sassari ( it, Università degli Studi di Sassari, UniSS) is a university located in Sassari, Italy. It was founded in 1562 and is organized in 13 departments. The University of Sassari earned first place in the rankings for ...

, 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 primary motor cortex (Brodmann area 4) is a Human brain, brain region that in humans is located in the dorsal portion of the frontal lobe. It is the primary cortex, primary region of the motor system and works in association with other motor ...

), the substantia gelatinosa of Rolando, the

fissure of Rolando In neuroanatomy, the central sulcus (also central fissure, fissure of Rolando, or Rolandic fissure, after Luigi Rolando) is a sulcus, or groove, in the cerebral cortex in the brains of vertebrates. It is sometimes confused with the longitudinal ...

(central sulcus) and

Rolandic epilepsy Benign Rolandic epilepsy or benign childhood epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BCECTS) is the most common epilepsy syndrome in childhood. Most children will outgrow the syndrome (it starts around the age of 3–13 with a peak around 8–9 yea ...

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 highly complex part of an animal that coordinates its actions and sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of its body. The nervous system detects environmental changes ...

. * ''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, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...

. * ''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 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 ...

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 hemisphere ...

s.
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References

External links

Picture at torinoscienza.it
1773 births 1831 deaths Italian anatomists Physicians from Turin University of Sassari faculty University of Turin faculty {{Italy-med-bio-stub