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CC BY 4.0 · Arq Neuropsiquiatr 2022; 80(07): 759-762
DOI: 10.1055/s-0042-1755278
Historical Notes

Thomas Willis' legacy on the 400th anniversary of his birth

O legado de Thomas Willis no 400° aniversário de seu nascimento
Hélio Afonso Ghizoni Teive 
1   Universidade Federal do Paraná, Hospital de Clínicas, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Serviço de Neurologia, Curitiba PR, Brazil.
2   Universidade Federal do Paraná, Hospital de Clínicas, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Grupo de Doenças Neurodegenerativas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Medicina Interna, Curitiba, Curitiba PR, Brazil.
,
Léo Coutinho 
1   Universidade Federal do Paraná, Hospital de Clínicas, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Serviço de Neurologia, Curitiba PR, Brazil.
,
Carlos Henrique Ferreira Camargo 
2   Universidade Federal do Paraná, Hospital de Clínicas, Departamento de Clínica Médica, Grupo de Doenças Neurodegenerativas, Programa de Pós-graduação em Medicina Interna, Curitiba, Curitiba PR, Brazil.
,
Renato Puppi Munhoz 
3   University of Toronto, Toronto Western Hospital, Division of Neurology, Morton and Gloria Shulman Movement Disorders Centre and Edmond J. Safra Program in Parkinson's Disease, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
,
Olivier Walusinski 
4   Private Practice, Brou, France.
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Abstract

To celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Willis, his main contributions to the development of neurosciences, in particular neurology, are presented. Willis coined the term neurology and contributed significantly to the field of neuroanatomy, with the description of the arterial circle—located at the base of the brain—, which bears his name. He also described the striatum and cranial nerves. Furthermore, as a clinical neurologist, Willis participated in the description of various diseases, including myasthenia gravis and restless legs syndrome.

Resumo

Na comemoração dos 400 anos de nascimento de Thomas Willis, são apresentadas as suas principais contribuições para o desenvolvimento das neurociências, em particular a neurologia. Willis cunhou o termo neurologia, contribuiu significativamente na área de neuroanatomia, com a descrição do círculo arterial localizado na base do cérebro, que tem o seu nome, além da descrição do corpo estriado, e de nervos cranianos. Da mesma forma, como neurologista clínico, Willis participou da descrição de várias doenças como a miastenia gravis e da síndrome das pernas inquietas, entre outras doenças.

Keywords

Neurosciences - Neurology - Circle of Willis - Neuroanatomy

Palavras-chave

Neurociências - Neurologia - Círculo Arterial do Cérebro - Neuroanatomia

Authors' Contributions

HAGT: conceptualization, investigation, writing – original draft, supervision; LC, CHFC, RPM, OW: investigation, writing – review & editing.




Publication History

Received: 21 March 2022

Accepted: 02 June 2022

Article published online:
29 September 2022

© 2022. Academia Brasileira de Neurologia. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

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