Angelo Mosso Explained

Angelo Mosso (30 May 1846 – 24 November 1910) was a 19th-century Italian physiologist who invented the first neuroimaging technique, known as 'human circulation balance'.^[1]

Mosso began his groundbreaking work by recording the pulsations of the human cortex in patients with skull defects following neurosurgical procedures. He observed that these pulsations changed during mental activity, leading him to infer that blood flow to the brain increases during such activities. To non-invasively measure the redistribution of blood during emotional and intellectual activity in healthy subjects, Mosso invented the 'human circulation balance'. This invention is regarded as the first neuroimaging technique ever and is a forerunner of more refined techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET).^[1] Born in Turin, Mosso studied medicine in Turin, Florence, Leipzig, and Paris. He was appointed professor of pharmacology in 1876 and professor of physiology in 1879 at the University of Turin.^[2] Mosso invented various instruments to measure the pulse and conducted extensive experiments on the variations in pulse volume during sleep, mental activity, and emotion. In 1900–01, he visited the United States and embodied the results of his observations in Democrazia nella religione e nella scienza: studi sull' America (1901).^[3] In 1882, he co-founded the Archives Italiennes de Biologie with Emery, a journal in which many of his essays were published. 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^[4]
• 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 and their Builders, New York, 1907)^{[5] [6]}
• 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 in 1897.

Inventions

• Mosso's balance, rediscovered by Stefano Sandrone and colleagues^[1]
• Mosso's ergograph — (1890) An apparatus for recording the force and frequency of flexion of the fingers^[7]
• Mosso's sphygmomanometer — An instrument for measuring blood pressure in the arteries

The American Illustrated Medical Dictionary (1938)

External links

• • • • Biography in English
• Mosso's first neuroimaging experiment ever
• Biography in Italian
• Short biography and bibliography in the Virtual Laboratory of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
• Some places and memories related to Angelo Mosso on Himetop – The History of Medicine Topographical Database

Notes and References

1. Sandrone, Stefano. 2014. Weighing brain activity with the balance: Angelo Mosso's original manuscripts come to light. Brain . 137. Pt 2. 621–633. 10.1093/brain/awt091. 23687118. free. 2318/141932. free.
2. Sandrone, Stefano . Bacigaluppi, Marco . Galloni, Marco R. . Martino, Gianvito . 2012. Angelo Mosso (1846–1910). 10.1007/s00415-012-6632-1. Journal of Neurology . 259. 11 . 2513–2514 . 23010944. 13365830 . 2318/140004 . free .
3. [New International Encyclopedia]
4. Book: Life of man on the high Alps by Angelo Mosso, trans. from the 2nd edition by E. Lough Kiesow. 1898. T.F. Unwin .
5. Book: Mosso, Angelo. The Palaces of Crete and their Builders. 1907. T.F. Unwin .
6. Review of The Palaces of Crete and their Builders by Angelo Mosso. The Athenæum. 4183. 28 December 1907. 833–834.
7. http://vlp.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/technology/data?id=tec365 Ergograph according to Mosso, modified by Lombard