Leonardo Bianchi

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Statue of Leonardo Bianchi on the Piazza Municipio in San Bartolomeo in Galdo

Leonardo Bianchi (born April 5, 1848 in San Bartolomeo in Galdo , † February 13, 1927 in Naples ) was an Italian neurologist and politician .

Life

He studied surgery and medicine at the University of Naples and founded the Istituto psichiatrico di Napoli (Psychiatric Institute of Naples). He was also a professor at the university.

He participated in the law Sui manicomi e sugli alienati (On mental hospitals and the mentally ill) and in 1905, as Minister of Education in the first cabinet of Alessandro Fortis, he introduced the first three chairs for psychology in Italy (at the universities of Rome , Naples and Turin ). The draft of a secondary school reform, which a royal commission set up at his instigation had drawn up with the significant participation of Gaetano Salvemini and which, among other things, had provided for a joint middle school without Latin, failed due to the resistance of the teachers' associations. In Paolo Boselli's cabinet he was Ministro senza portafoglio from June 1916 to October 1917 and as such was responsible for the medical services of the fighting troops.

From 1892 to 1919 he was a member of the Camera dei Deputati , where he belonged to the democratic left. From 1910 to 1914 he was President of the Province of Benevento . In 1919 he was appointed senator . In 1923 he had to give up his professor position due to his age; nevertheless he was still active and also continued his research.

He died of angina pectoris at a university convention in 1927 .

Findings about the frontal lobe

He was concerned with the frontal lobe of the brain. He drew his conclusions from experiments with monkeys and dogs from which he had removed the frontal lobe. He found that the frontal lobe is more important than was known at the time; he called the frontal lobe the coordination center and bundling of the incoming and outgoing sensory and motor signals of the cerebral cortex .

He named five areas that are restricted by the removal of the frontal lobe:

  • Loss of quality of perception,
  • reduced memory performance,
  • Difficulties in association and, as a result, difficulties in understanding processes and performing complex tasks,
  • Change in emotional ties and social behavior,
  • Difficulty concentrating and apathy .

literature

  • Mario Santoro - Elvira Gencarelli:  Bianchi, Leonardo. In: Alberto M. Ghisalberti (Ed.): Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI). Volume 10:  Biagio-Boccaccio. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 1968.
  • L. Traykov, F. Boller: Frontal lobes pathology and dementia. An appraisal of the contribution of Leonardo Bianchi . In: The Italian Journal of Neurological Sciences. 18: 129-134 (1997).

Web links

  • Entry in the Portale storico of the Camera dei deputati
  • Entry in the Senatori dell'Italia Liberale database in the Historical Archives of the Italian Senate

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cabinet list in the Portale storico of the Camera
  2. ↑ Details in the article in the Dizionario biografico degli Italiani.
  3. ↑ This information, which is mentioned in the database of the Senate and in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, is missing in the Chamber's database.
  4. ↑ Leonardo Bianchi. biography
personal data
SURNAME Bianchi, Leonardo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian neurologist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH San Bartolomeo in Galdo
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1927
Place of death Naples