Michelangelo Asson and Filippo Lussana: a clinician and a physiologist among the protagonists of the Italian debate on the cerebral localization of language in the first half of the nineteenth century

Abstract

The question about the cerebral localization of the articulate language animated in France a lively debate for many dec-ades before the Paul Broca’s “discovery”. All the phases of this debate have been extensively documented by the historians of medicine. In contrast to this, the debate arised in Italy in the same period is still nearly unknown. Interestingly, the most important Italian protagonists are physicians who attended the University of Pavia, a famous center for the neuroanatomical research in the nineteenth century. This essay focuses on Michelangelo Asson and Filippo Lussana; a clinician and a physiologist whose contribution to research is particularly interesting.