Gobierno de la ciudad
de Buenos Aires
Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico "Dr. José Tiburcio Borda"
Laboratorio de Investigaciones
Electroneurobiológicas
y Revista
Electroneurobiología
ISSN:
0328-0446
Short Biography of Ramon Carrillo (1906-1956)
Breve biografía de Ramón Carrillo (1906-1956)
(English - Castellano)
Followed by / seguida de
Self-introducing CV prepared by Ramon Carrillo in the States, in the hope of finding some job
(Presentación curricular que Ramón Carrillo preparó en los EE.UU. para procurarse algún empleo)
by / por
Mario Crocco
Electroneurobiología
2006; 14 (1), pp. 173-186; URL
<http://electroneubio.secyt.gov.ar/index2.htm>
Copyright
© 2006
Correspondencia /
Contact: postmaster [-at--] neurobiol.cyt.edu.ar
Ramón
Carrillo: Argentine neurosurgeon, neurobiologist, and public health physician born in Santiago del
Estero city (March 7, 1906). Between 1930 and 1945 he contributed valuable
original research about the brain cells which are not neurons – named glial
cells – and the method for staining and observing them under the microscope, as
well as on their evolutionary origin (phylogeny), and the comparative anatomy of
the brain across the several classes of vertebrates. In the same period Ramón
Carrillo contributed novel techniques for neurological diagnosis: he refined
iodine-contrasted ventriculography, called iodoventriculography, and discovered
signs in it for several diseases; developed tomography, which by lack of
electronic means at the time was prevented from integrating computation yet was
a precursor of what is today known as computerized tomography; and achieved its
combination with electroencephalogram (EEG), termed tomoencephalography. Still
in the same period, Carrillo attained valuable results investigating the brain
herniations protruding into blood cysterns (cysternal herniations) and the
syndromes (groups of symptoms) ocurring after a closed brain traumatism or
contussion (postcommotional syndromes); he discovered the "Carrillo's
disease" or epidemic acute papillitis; described in detail the
cerebral scleroses, during whose investigation he performed many cerebral
transplantations (brain grafts) between living rabbits; and histologically
reclassified the cerebral tumors and the inflammations of the innermost brain
envelope (arachnoid), which inflammations are called arachnoiditis. He also
proposed a widely used, pre-DSM "Classification of mental diseases."
At the age of 36 (1942), by opposition concourse he became the University of
Buenos Aires Chair of Neurosurgery. Then, in a sudden
professional change, Carrillo left his brilliant career as
neurobiologist and neurosurgeon and renounced the calm and prestige derived
from it, in order to fully devote himself to social medicine, called sanitarism
in Spain and Latin American countries. From this angle he hoped
to flesh out his aspirations regarding health. By taking profit of the
opportunity allowed by the rise of a certain polítical party (Peronist Party)
with whose leader Ramón Carrillo had made friends only during the last two and
a half years, in 1946 he moved to confront the causes of diseases with the public
power now at his disposal. In this way Carrillo later became the first Minister
of Public Health of the Argentine Republic. During eight years he developed an
innovative and highly valuable contribution, but quitted in July 1954, more
than a year before than Juan Domingo Perón's second term ended with a
coup d'état (September 16, 1955). In spite of his long disconnection, he was to
remain outside of the country, first in the United States and then in Brazil.
Exiled, seriously ill (insufficiently treated hypertension), polítically
chased (the Argentine government which ousted Peron presented a formal protest
to the Brazilian government which had provided some medical help
to Carrillo, labeling him as a "malingerer"; his books and pictures
in Buenos Aires were sacked) and suffering grievous poverty with his wife and
little children, Ramon Carrillo passed away in Belém do Pará, Brazil (December
20, 1956). Circumstances notwithstanding, during this year he still produced
works on philosophical anthropology. Defamed by them as a "gasoline
robber", his figure and accomplishments were silenced until Perón's brief
third presidential period (1973-1974). In this stage Carrillo was recognized,
although only as architect and achiever of a National Health system carefully
designed and carried out. His name was then imparted to numerous Argentine
hospitals and institutions related to public health. It is frequently ascribed
to the embarrassment produced by Carrillo's model in less competent politicians
the fact that, afterwards, his biography, ideas, and contributions to science
remained generally unknown, except by outlines in the neurobiological
tradition in which Carrillo took part. The large skeletons for several
hospitals that he left behind without completion never became finished, and were
demolished during this period even as late as 2004. In 2005 his brother Arturo
Carrillo, still in hardship and without any official funding, completed
a book expounding the magnitude of his achievements and sacrifices. It
triggered that, by Executive Order 1558 dated Dec. 9, 2005, the Argentine
government decreed the full year 2006 as "Year of Honor to Ramón
Carrillo". Many events were carried out to make amends for the previous injustices
and the ideas of social medicine steering his work became republished.
Short biography
After attending elementary and
middle school in his native city, Ramón Carrillo moved to Buenos Aires to start
a career in Medicine. He did it brilliantly, studying with Christfried Jakob
among others, and graduated in 1929 with the Gold Medal for the best student.
After this he showed
a preference for neurology and neurosurgery, collaborating with eminent neurosurgeon Manuel Balado, a Mayo alumnus and also a disciple of Christfried
Jakob. Under Balado, Carrillo published his initial scientífic articles. After
graduation he obtained a travel grant in order to futher his studies in
Europe, where he worked in the best neuroscience laboratories, Cornelius
Ariens Kappers's and the Vogts' among them.
He returned to Buenos Aires in
the middle years of what historian José Luis Torres labeled "The Infamous
Decade". In it, Carrillo witnessed what has been described as the
"systematic sacking and destruction of his fatherland, a period
characterized by the leaders' deep moral decadence, in which self-imposed
corruption, economic felonies, the selling out of the national patrimony, and
the impoverishment of the population's majority" (Ordóñez). Thus
disillusioned – because of the "Infamous Decade's" mismanagement – of
the socio-cultural proposals of the liberal, American-style democratic system,
and explicitly rejecting both its nazifascist and stalinist alternatives,
Carrillo adhered to the locally rising nationalist thought. Looking forward to
a re-moralizing revolution, he complemented his scientific formation with
evolving political ideas and cultural education. He reinforced his close
relationship with his former companion of elementary school Homero Manzi, as
well as Arturo Jauretche, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz, and tango and theater
composers Armando Discepolo y Enrique Santos Discépolo, representatives of
tango culture and the new nationalistic ideas; and the Argentine-German
neurobiological tradition active at the neuropsychiatric hospitals later known
by the names of two disciples of Christfried Jakob, Drs. Borda and Moyano. In
1937 Ramon Carrillo suffered an acute illness, the sequel of whose fever was
hypertension and progressively severe headaches. He barely saved his life
through the devoted efforts of his lifetime friend Salomón Chichilnisky, a
medical doctor and literary author who started life carrying loads in the docks
in the port of Buenos Aires to support his parents, brothers and sisters and,
against all odds, became a Chaired Professor of neurology, then acting in the
level of Secretary of Health helped minister Carrillo to build many public
hospitals in Argentina, and later died in one of them.
During those years Ramón
Carrillo exclusively dedicated himself to research and teaching, until becoming
Head (1939) of the Neurology and Neurosurgery Service in the Argentinian
Military Central Hospital. This position in Buenos Aires afforded him deep
acquaintance with the real situation of the country's health. He became well informed about the clínical files of all the young men examined for enrolment into
the military service, coming from the whole of Argentina, and became aware of the
high prevalence of poverty-linked diseases, specially in the candidates from
the poorest provinces. He carried out statistical studies showing that
the country only had 45% of the required hospital beds, moreover unevenly
distributed, with regions falling to 0,00% of beds for every thousand
inhabitants. He thus ratified the recollections and images from his own
province, evincing the state of neglect of the majority of the country.
Doubly employed because of
salary needs (he was still single, but helped his mother and ten younger
brother and sisters, caring for all of them to have a career), in 1942 Carrillo
obtained by opposition the Chair of Neurosurgery of the Medicine Faculty. There
he formed a squad of talented disciples, among them German Dickmann, Raúl
Matera, D. E. Nijensohn, Raúl Carrea, Fernando Knesevich, Lorenzo Amezúa, Jorge
Cohen, Jacobo and Leon Zimman, Rogelio Driollet Laspiur, Juan C. Christensen
and Alberto D. Kaplan. His scientific and academic career was brilliant.
Nevertheless, his life was to radically change. Great transformations were
occurring in the country. In 1943 president Castillo was overthrown and another
military government took over. In these circumstances, in the Hospital Militar
Carrillo became acquainted with colonel Juan Domingo Perón, a patient with whom
Carrillo shared long talks. The colonel was precisely who persuaded Ramón
Carrillo to collaborate in planning the national health polícies. Soon
afterwards Carrillo, aged 39, briefly served as Dean of the Medicine Faculty,
acting as a go-between in a fierce, highly politized, Left-Right university
conflict. By early 1946 both sides resented him, forcing him to quit
office.
By then colonel Perón
democratically obtained the nation's presidence, confirming Carrillo as head of
the State Secretary of Public Health, later Ministry of Public Health and
Social Assistance of the country. Besides Chichilnisky, Ramón Carrillo wanted to
be assisted by his close friend and companion medical student the
neuroscientist Braulio Moyano, another of the ablest disciples of Christfried
Jakob, yet Moyano felt himself unable to serve society in such a role and preferred
to remain as a neurobiologist. The person who to this end left science and moved from the
now named hospital Borda was, instead, Santiago Carrillo, a disciple of Moyano and
brother of the new minister. Perón's wife, "Evita", coordinated her
political action with Carrillo's, so contributing to his technical
achievements.
Ramón Carrillo's action was
prolific, hitherto unsurpassed. He increased the number of hospital beds in the
country, from 66.300 in 1946 to 132.000 in 1954. He eradicated, in only two years,
endemic diseases such as malaria, by means of highly aggressive campaigns
against the vector. Syphilis and veneral diseases practically vanished.
He built 234 free, public hospitals or policlinics, lowered tuberculosis'
mortality rate from 130 per 100.000 to 36 per 100.000, ended epidemics such as
typhus and brucellosis, and drastically decreased the infantile mortality rate from
90 to 56 per thousand live births.
All this Ramón Carrillo did
while giving priority to the development of preventive medicine, the hospitals'
management, and concepts such as regulative centralizing and
executive decentralizing ("centralización normativa y descentralización
ejecutiva"). The later differs from the decentralizing with merely
economic goals imposed by the markets. Corresponding by letter with Norbert
Wiener, the so-called "creator of cybernetics", Ramón Carrillo
applied it to the art of government with the name of cybernology (cibernología),
creating an Instituto de Cibernología or strategic planning in 1951.
Numerous authors agree that
the most important heritage bestowed by Ramón Carrillo were the ideas,
principles, and grounding motives which accompanied his deeds. "The
problems of Medicine as a branch of the State cannot be resolved while sanitary
politics is not backed by a social politics. Similarly, there cannot be a
social politics without an economy organized to benefit the greater part of the
population." "In the field of health, the scientific achievements
only are useful when they are at the reach of the whole population." These
sentences portray a personality capable of abandoning his admirable scientific
career, internationally recognized, in order to fully devote himself to the
concrete needs of his people.
Ordóñez writes: "He died
in Belém do Pará, North Brazil, on 20 December, 1956, at his age of fifty,
poverty-stricken, ailing and exiled, receiving money by mail from his friend
Salomón Chichilnisky exactly as San Martín did from his friend Aguado. Perhaps
thinking, as libertador Simón Bolívar did, that he has been tilling the
sea ... Maybe one of his better known sentences indicates that his work remains
unfinished: 'Facing the diseases generated by poverty, facing the peoples'
sadness, wretchedness, and social tribulation, the microbes inasmuch as causes
of disease are only secondary causes.' "
____________
Castellano
Ramón Carrillo: Neurocirujano, neurobiólogo y médico sanitarista argentino, nació en Santiago
del Estero el 7 de marzo de 1906. Produjo entre 1930 y 1945 valiosas
investigaciones originales sobre las células cerebrales que no son neuronas,
denominadas neuroglía, y los métodos para teñirlas y observarlas al
microscopio, así como sobre su origen evolutivo (filogenia), y sobre la
anatomía comparada de los cerebros de las diversas clases de vertebrados. En
ese periodo aportó nuevas técnicas de diagnóstico neurológico
(yodoventriculografía; tomografía, que por carencia en la época de medios
electrónicos no pudo integrar la computación, pero fue precursora de lo que hoy
se conoce como tomografía computadorizada; su combinación con el
electroencefalograma, llamada tomoencefalografía). También durante esos quince
años logró valiosos resultados investigando las herniaciones del cerebro que
ocurren en sus cisternas (hernias cisternales) y los sindromes que ocurren tras
una conmoción o traumatismo cerrado cerebral (sindromes postconmocionales);
descubrió la "enfermedad de Carrillo" o papilitis aguda
epidémica; describió en detalle las esclerosis cerebrales durante cuya
investigación realizó numerosos trasplantes de cerebro vivo entre conejos, y
reclasificó histológicamente los tumores cerebrales y las inflamaciones de la
envoltura más íntima del cerebro (aracnoides), inflamaciones llamadas
aracnoiditis. También propuso una "Clasificación de las enfermedades
mentales" que fue ampliamente empleada antes de los DSM. A los treinta y seis años de edad (1942) ganó
por concurso el cargo de Profesor Titular de Neurocirugía de la Universidad de
Buenos Aires. No obstante, en brusco viraje profesional, abandonó su brillantísima
carrera como neurobiólogo y neurocirujano y renunció al prestigio y la
tranquilidad que le podía brindar tal carrera para dedicarse al desarrollo de
la medicina social (sanitarismo), desde donde podía realizar y concretar sus
ideas sobre salud. Aprovechando la oportunidad que le brindaba el ascenso de
cierto partido político (Partido Peronista) a cuyo jefe Carrillo había conocido
dos años y medio antes, en 1946 decidió dedicarse a atacar las causas de las
enfermedades desde el poder público a su alcance. Así se convirtió luego en el
primer Ministro de Salud Pública que tuvo la Argentina. Por ocho años
desarrolló una innovadora y muy valiosa labor, pero renunció en julio de 1954,
antes de que el segundo gobierno de Juan Domingo Perón fuera derrocado el 16 de
septiembre de 1955. No obstante debió permanecer fuera del país. Exiliado,
enfermo (hipertensión mal atendida), políticamente perseguido (el gobierno
argentino de facto que produjo el derrocamiento presentó ante el de Brasil una
protesta por prestársele a Carrillo ayuda médica, calificándolo de
"prófugo"; sus libros y cuadros en Buenos Aires fueron saqueados) y
tras padecer con su familia grave pobreza, falleció en Belem do Pará, Brasil,
el 20 de diciembre de 1956. No obstante tales condiciones, duante ese año aún
produjo trabajos de antropología filosófica. Declarado por entonces
"ladrón de nafta", su figura y su obra fueron silenciados hasta el
breve tercer gobierno de Perón (1973-1974). En esta etapa fue generalmente
reconocido aunque sólo como mentor y ejecutor de un Plan Sanitario
cuidadosamente diseñado y ejecutado, impartiéndose su nombre a numerosos
hospitales e instituciones argentinas vinculadas a la salud pública. Suele
atribuirse a la incomodidad que su ejemplo producía en políticos menos
competentes el hecho de que luego su biografía e ideas permanecieron
generalmente desconocidas, salvo reseñas en la tradición neurobiológica que
Carrillo integró. Las grandes estructuras de varios hospitales que dejó sin
completar nunca fueron habilitadas y fueron derribadas en este periodo, hasta
tan tardíamente como en 2004. En 2005 su hermano Arturo Carrillo, sin ningún
subsidio oficial, logró terminar de producir un libro que exponía la magnitud
de sus logros y sacrificios. Ello desencadenó que el 9 de diciembre de 2005 el
gobierno argentino decretara a 2006 "Año de homenaje a Ramón
Carrillo", produciéndose numerosos actos de desagravio y volviéndose a
publicar las ideas de medicina social que guiaron su labor.
Reseña
biográfica
Luego de cursar estudios primarios y secundarios en
su ciudad natal, partió rumbo a Buenos Aires, para iniciar la Carrera de
Medicina. Cursó esta carrera de manera brillante, escuchando entre otros a
Christofredo Jakob y obtuvo, al recibirse en 1929, la Medalla de Oro al mejor
alumno de su promoción.
Desde estudiante se inclinó hacia la neurología y
la neurocirugía, colaborando con el Dr. Manuel Balado, eminente neurocirujano
de la época, con quien realizó sus primeros trabajos científicos. Ya recibido abrazó
definitivamente estas especialidades y obtuvo una beca universitaria para
perfeccionarse en Europa, donde trabajó e investigó junto a los más destacados
especialistas del mundo, entre ellos Cornelius Ariens Kappers.
Regresó a Buenos Aires en plena "Década
Infame", donde pudo vivenciar lo que ha sido calificado como el
"sistemático saqueo y destrucción que sufría su patria, en un periodo
caracterizado por la profunda decadencia moral de la dirigencia, donde se
impone la corrupción, el negociado, la enajenación del patrimonio nacional y el
empobrecimiento de una gran mayoría poblacional" (Ordóñez). Adhiere
entonces al pensamiento nacionalista que toma auge en aquella época, rechazando
explícitamente tanto las propuestas culturales anglonorteamericanas y
nazifascistas cuanto el estalinismo. Buscando una revolucionaria
remoralización, complementa su educación científica con ideas políticas y
formación cultural. Se vincula con su compañero de estudios primarios Homero
Manzi, y otros hombres como Arturo Jauretche, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz y los
autores teatrales y de tango Armando Discepolo y Enrique Santos Discépolo,
representantes de la cultura y de las nuevas ideas nacionales, y se asocia con
la escuela neurobiológica argentina activa en el Hospicio de la Mercedes y el
Hospital de Alienadas, luego hospitales Borda y Moyano. En 1937 padece una
enfermedad aguda, la secuela de cuya alta fiebre fue hipertensión y cefaleas
progresivamente más severas. Logró sobrevivir por la dedicación clínica de su
amigo de toda la vida Salomón Chichilnisky, médico y literato que comenzó cargando bolsas en
el puerto para mantener padres y hermanos y, superando enormes obstáculos,
llegó a catedrático de neurología, luego en el nivel de Secretario de Salud
ayudó grandemente a Carrillo a levantar muchísimos hospitales públicos y
gratuitos, y bastante después murió en uno de ellos.
Durante esos años se dedicó únicamente a la
investigación y a la docencia, hasta que en 1939 se hizo cargo del Servicio de
Neurología y Neurocirugía del Hospital Militar Central en Buenos Aires. Este
empleo le permitió conocer con mayor profundidad la realidad sanitaria del
país. Tomó contacto con las historias clínicas de los aspirantes al servicio
militar, procedentes de toda la Argentina, y pudo comprobar la prevalencia de
enfermedades vinculadas con la pobreza, sobre todo en los aspirantes de las
provincias más postergadas. Llevó a cabo estudios estadísticos que determinaron
que el país sólo contaba con el 45% de las camas necesarias, además
distribuidas de manera desigual, con regiones que contaban con 0,00% de camas
por mil habitantes. Confirmó de esta manera sus recuerdos e imágenes de
provincia, que mostraban el estado de postergación en que se encontraba gran
parte del interior argentino.
Con doble empleo debido a su necesidad de salario
(aún era soltero, pero ayudaba a sostenerse a su madre y diez hermanos más
jóvenes, cuidando de que todos lograran una carrera profesional), en 1942
Carrillo ganaría por concurso la titularidad de la cátedra de Neurocirugía de
la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas de Buenos Aires. Formó allí una escuadra de
bien elegidos y talentosos discípulos, entre ellos Germán Dickmann, Raúl
Matera, D. E. Nijensohn, Raúl Carrea, Fernando Knesevich, Lorenzo Amezúa, Jorge
Cohen, Jacobo y León Zimman, Rogelio Driollet Laspiur, Juan C. Christensen y
Alberto D. Kaplan. Brillante era su carrera en el mundo científico y académico.
Sin embargo, los sucesos históricos harían cambiar radicalmente su vida de modo
que la figura de Carrillo tomara otras dimensiones, fuera de la ciencia
biomédica. Grandes cambios se producían en el país: en 1943 es derrocado el
régimen del presidente Castillo y asumió otro gobierno militar. En este
contexto Carrillo conoció en el Hospital Militar al Coronel Juan Domingo Perón,
paciente con quien compartía largas conversaciones. Es precisamente el coronel
quien convence a Ramón Carrillo de colaborar en la planificación de la política
sanitaria de ese gobierno.
Poco después, a los 39 años de edad, Ramón Carrillo
prestó servicios brevemente como Decano de la Facultad de Medicina. Le tocó
intermediar varios meses en un fiero conflicto universitario altamente
politizado entre izquierdas y derechas. Para comienzos de 1946 ambos grupos
opuestos estaban resentidos contra su gestión, forzándolo a renunciar.
Por entonces Perón llegaría a la presidencia, por
vía democrática, y confirmó al Dr. Carrillo al frente de la Secretaría de Salud
Pública, que posteriormente se transformaría en el Ministerio de Salud Pública
y Asistencia Social de la Nación. Además de acompañarse con Chichilnisky,
Carrillo quiso llevar como su segundo a su gran amigo y compañero de estudios
médicos el científico Braulio Moyano, uno de los mejores discípulos de
Christofredo Jakob, pero Moyano se sintió incapaz de servir a la sociedad desde
semejante rol y prefirió permanecer como científico. Quien a tal fin abandonó
la ciencia y dejó el hoy hospital Borda fue, en cambio, un discípulo de Moyano
y hermano del flamante ministro, el Dr. Santiago Carrillo. La esposa de Perón,
"Evita", coordinó su accionar con el de Carrillo y contribuyó a
consolidar su obra técnica.
Difícil es enumerar la prolífica obra del Dr.
Carrillo frente a esta cartera. Llevó a cabo acciones sin parangón hasta
nuestros días. Aumentó el número de camas existentes en el país, de 66.300 en
1946 a 132.000 en 1954. Erradicó, en sólo dos años, enfermedades endémicas como
el paludismo, con campañas sumamente agresivas. Hizo desaparecer prácticamente
la sífilis y las enfermedades venéreas. Creó 234 hospitales o policlínicas
gratuitos. Disminuyó el índice de mortalidad por tuberculosis de 130 por
100.000 a 36 por 100.000. Terminó con epidemias como el tifus y la brucelosis.
Redujo drásticamente el índice de mortalidad infantil del 90 por mil a 56 por
mil.
Todo esto, dando prioritaria importancia al
desarrollo de la medicina preventiva, a la organización hospitalaria, a
conceptos como la "centralización normativa y descentralización
ejecutiva". Esta nada tiene que ver con la descentralización que solo
responde a fines meramente económicos impuestos por los mercados. Carteándose
con Norbert Wiener, el llamado "creador de la cibernética", Carrillo
la aplicó al arte de gobernar con el nombre de cibernología, creando un
Instituto de Cibernología o planeamiento estratégico en 1951.
Numerosos autores coinciden en que el legado más
importante que dejó el Dr. Carrillo fueron las ideas, principios y fundamentos
que acompañaron este accionar. "Los problemas de la Medicina como rama del
Estado, no pueden resolverse si la política sanitaria no está respaldada por
una política social. Del mismo modo que no puede haber una política social sin
una economía organizada en beneficio de la mayoría." "Solo sirven las
conquistas científicas sobre la salud si éstas son accesibles al pueblo."
Estas fueron algunas de las frases que describen a un hombre capaz de abandonar
su admirable carrera científica, reconocida a nivel internacional, para
entregarse de lleno a las necesidades concretas de su gente.
Dice Ordóñez: "Murió a los cincuenta años,
pobre, enfermo y exiliado, recibiendo por correo aportes de su amigo Salomón
Chichilnisky tal como San Martín lo hacía de su amigo Aguado, en Belem do Pará,
ciudad del Norte del Brasil, el 20 de diciembre de 1956. Quizás pensando, como
lo hizo el gran libertador Simón Bolívar, que había arado en el mar ... Quizás
una de sus frases más celebres nos indique que aún su obra está inconclusa:
'Frente a las enfermedades que genera la miseria, frente a la tristeza, la
angustia y el infortunio social de los pueblos, los microbios, como causas de
enfermedad, son unas pobres causas.' "
Reference / Referencia: Marcos A. Ordóñez,
"Ramón Carrillo, el gran sanitarista argentino", Electroneurobiología
12 (2), pp. 144-147, 2004.
Presentación
curricular que Ramón Carrillo preparó en los EE.UU. para procurarse algún
empleo; el inglés, con escasos retoques, es original / Self-introducing CV prepared
by Carrillo in the States, in the hope of finding some job; his English, only
just a bit prettified.
" RAMÓN CARRILLO
I. General Antecedents
1. Born in Santiago del Estero (Argentina) on March 7, 1906.
2. Degree, high school, with gold medal, in 1923.
3. Argentina Historical Award, with gold medal, in 1923, for a monograph
on "Juan Felipe Ibarra and His Time".
4. Faculty of Medicine in 1924 to 1930. The first student to receive a
gold medal. Surgeon of the Institute of Clinical Surgery of the University of
Buenos Ayres.
5. "Faculty Prize" for the best doctoral thesis in competition.
6. Engaged in post-graduate studies between 1930-1934 in Amsterdam
(Ariens Kappers, Brower), Paris (Guillain), and Berlin (Vogt), specializing in
neuropathology.
7. From 1933 to 1936 inclusive, continued his investigations in the
histology of the nervous system with Ramón y Cajal and Río Hortega.
8. Appointed Assistant Professor, Chair of Neurosurgery, 1937.
9. Titular Professor of Neurosurgery in the Faculty of Medicine at
Buenos Ayres, since 1943.
10. Founder and Director of the National Institute of Neurosurgery,
since 1944.
11. Chief of the Neurosurgical Service of the Argentine Army, since
1939.
12. From 1936 to 1943, Professor of History of Civilization.
13. Founder of the Argentine Society of the History of Medicine.
14. Counselor of the Faculty of Medicine, in 1944.
15. Provisional Dean at the Faculty of Medicine, in 1945.
16. Founder, Organizer, and first President of the Post-Graduate School
of the Faculty of Medicine.
17. Founder and organizer of Public Health Ministry of Argentina, in
1946.
18. First Minister of Public Health of Argentina, from 1946 to July 22,
1954.
19. Founder and director of the "Institute for the Sciences of the
Man", 1949-1954 (Buenos Ayres).
II. Summary of Scientific Work on
the Subject of Neurosurgery
A. Has published 140 monographs on subjects related to neurology,
psychiatry, histology and pathology of the nervous system, with special
reference to neurosurgery and the history of medicine.
B. His most original works refer to:
1. New procedures for the diagnosis of cerebral lesions,
"Iodine-Ventriculargraphy", for which he was awarded the National
Science Award (Argentine Republic).
2. His book on "Post-Commotional Syndrome", which for the
first time describes the objective syndrome of the post-concussion.
3. His book on "Cisternal Hernias of the Brain", with a new
nomenclature and description of cerebral cisterns and their pathology.
4. His work by means of which the technique of "Selective Leucotomy"
was created.
5. Description of a new syndrome, "Distal Polyneuritis", in
the year 1933, published in Holland, Germany, and Argentina.
6. Description of the "epidemic papillitis" or "Carrillo
disease", as it is called by Argentine, Chilean, and Brazilian authors.
7. Description of a new technique for the silver impregnation of
oligodendroglial cells (first confirmation of the discovery of Rio Hortega),
according to a statement of the same in his later works.
8. Description of the "Sign of the Deviation of the Aqueduct of
Silvius" ("Sign of Carrillo", according to English
neurologists, especially Purves Stewart).
9. Atlas of Comparative Anatomy of the Nervous System prepared in the Institute
of Cerebral Anatomy, Amsterdam.
10. Description of a new type of encephalitis "local and evolving
scleroatrophians encephalitis", similar to the Schilder disease (1934).
III. Activities as a Medical Hygienist
A. Organized the Ministry of Public Health of the Argentine Republic.
B. His work as Minister during the past eight years has resulted in the
following:
1. Preparation of Sanitation Plan for Argentina (See Publications – Analytical
Plan of Public Health – four volumes). Created and organized 81 technical
directives for the execution of the plan, now 75% completed.
2. Organized new hospitals and services, which amount to more than
15,000 beds (1954). In Argentina there were in 1946 a total of 53,000 beds, and
when he resigned as Minister of Public Health (1954) there were 132,000 beds.
3 Organized 104 Health Centers now functioning.
4. Introduced the medical-social concept in Argentina, with resulting
concrete improvements in eight years and statistics never before registered in
the country.
5. Created 53 Medical-Social Institutes (such as Recreational Therapy,
Institute of Blood Therapy, Institute of Periodical Examinations of Public
Administration, Institute of Public Hygiene, Institute of Phoniatry,
Institute of Social Psychopathology, Institute of Social Cardiology, Institute
of Mentally-Retarded Children, Institute of Social Hygiene, Institute of Industrial
Hygiene, Institute of Technological Medicine, Institutes of Dentistry (Rosario,
one; Buenos Ayres, two), etc.
6. Promoted a new technique within the sanitation organization, by
means of which he has practically eliminated malaria (1946). The 87,853 new
cases per year of 1946 became reduced to less than a thousand cases in 1950.
Statistically, this is practically zero. The eradication of malaria in
Argentina is one of the great technical achievements of the Health Department:
for the first time in the history, a service for fighting malaria was closed
because there was no need for it. It was transformed to an organization for
combating tuberculosis and control of other regional epidemics.
7. Reduced the number of cases of leprosy, installing hospitals and
centers for treatment with practical and original orientation, which permitted
the control of almost all cases. There are more beds than needed for leprosy in
Argentina. He has developed a new plan to combat tuberculosis – which solves
the problem with immediate results and with little expense.
8. He has continually reduced the venereal disease rate over five
years, from 58 to 25 per 10,000; the mortality from tuberculosis, from 73 to
52 per 10,000; and infant mortality, from 80 to 68 per 1,000 annually. He has
brought about nearly a million medical examinations of a preventative nature.
He has lowered the general mortality rate from 10 to 8.8 per 1,000.
7. Prepared the Argentine Code of Sanitary Laws with a new judicial
criterion, completely different from those in other countries, and compiled
the basic laws of public health – the Code of Sanitary Law (N. 13,012) and of
Hospital Buildings (No. 13,019).
8. Promoted the installation of new industrial plants for the production
of antibiotics, especially penicillin and chloromycin, and other critical
drugs (DDT, PAS, streptomycin, etc. – these last in process of construction) .
9. Organized the sale of medicines with an ethical criterion ad responsibility,
establishing a fixed and uniform price throughout the country.
10. He has developed sanitary engineering and architecture as a
specialty, establishing the respective organizations and promoting
professorial chairs on these subjects in the universities.
11. Organized vital statistics under the name of the National Service of
Demology; created the Institute of Population, the Institute of Sanitary
Economics, and the Institute of Medical Social Geography.
14. Organized the Administration of Technical Instruction and
Scientific Research (1949), and coordinated the investigations and preparation
of the necessary personnel installed in three Institutes of Instruction: a) The
Higher Institute of Medical Culture; b) The Institute of Auxiliary Technicians,
and c) The Institute for Perfecting the Medical Social Specialties, creating
the careers of "Sanitary Medicine", of "Industrial
Medicine", of "Administrative Medicine", of "Investigative
Medicine", and other specialties connected with Public Health.
15. Developed an organization of Sanitary Education and, in 1948,
brought into being the largest Exposition of Public Health in South America.
16. Organized the International Service of Political Sanitation,
promoting the stability of four treaties with neighboring countries concerning
sanitation. Compiled and obtained the
sanction of the respective law of the Argentine nation and of the World Health
Organization [Carrillo's emphasis], promoted the reorganization of the
Pan-American Sanitary Office at the Conference held in Buenos Ayres in 1948,
and encouraged its incorporation in the OMS [WHO] as a regional organization.
IV. Publications on Subjects of Public Health, Hygiene, and Social
Medicine
A. Addressed 200 conferences and lectures in eight years, most of which
have already been published, on subjects of sanitary medicine, social
medicine, and medical aid.
B. Has written most of the regulations of the Ministry, and published
the first orderly and systematic compilation of laws, decrees, and official
resolutions in the field of public health ("Sanitary Digest").
C. Published the following books
on Public and Social Medicine:
1. Ramón Carrillo and collaborators: "Analytical Plan for Public
Health, 1946-1951 period", 1947. Buenos Ayres, four volumes.
2. Ramón Carrillo: "Argentine Sanitary Policy", two volumes,
1949.
3. Ramón Carrillo: "Public Health Before the Amendment of the
National Constitution. Comparative Study of Constitutional Rights",
1949.
4. Ramón Carrillo: "Psychological Warfare". 1950. Buenos
Ayres; 2nd edition with collaborators.
5. Ramón Carrillo: "Sanitary classifications of mental diseases.
Relations between the Sanitary Code and the Civil Code", 1950.
6. Ramón Carrillo: "Plan for Argentine Sanitary Code", 1951.
7. Ramón Carrillo: "Theory of The Hospital", in 2 volumes, I.
Architecture, and II. Administration; 1951.
8. Ramón Carrillo: "Contributions of Sanitary Knowledge",
1951. Buenos Ayres.
9. Ramón Carrillo: "Synthetic Plan of Public Health for the Period
1952-1958", and "Schematic Plan of Public Health for 1952-1958"
(synthesis, previous to the realization of the former plan).
10. Ramón Carrillo: "Introduction to Bio-Politics and Cybernology
(Man's Space)." Partially published.
11. "The Financing of Public Health", 1952. 1 volume.
12. "Comparative Evolution of the Public Health Budget", 1946-1951.
13. "A Child is Born", First Edition 1952, Second Edition 1954.
14. "Food Policies of Argentine", 1952.
V. Scientific Societies
1. Ex-president of the Argentine Society of Psychiatry, Neurology, and
Neurosurgery, and present Honorary Fellow of the same.
2. Secretary and Founder of the Society of the History of Medicine.
3. Corresponding member of the Neurological Society of Paris, France.
4. Titular member of the Society of Ophthalmology (Argentine) .
5. Corresponding member of the Cuban Society of Neurology and
Psychiatry (Republic of Cuba).
6. Honorary member o! the Society of Neurology and Psychiatry of Rosario
[city] (Republic of Argentina).
7. Honorary member of the Chilean Society of Neurology, Psychiatry, and
Neurosurgery.
8. Honorary member of the Society of Neuro-Psychiatry and Legal
Medicine of Valparaiso (Chile).
9. Honorary member of the Society of Hospital Surgeons of Chile
(Republic of Chile).
10. Honorary member of the Brazilian Association of Industrial
Medicine.
11. Honorary member of the Brazilian Institute of the History of
Medicine.
J2. Honorary member of the Association of Public Health Officers
(Republic of Argentine) .
13. Honorary Fellow - The International Red Cross (Argentina).
14. President of the Pan-American Sanitation Conference, in 1948.
15. President of the South American Congress of Neurosurgery, 1949.
16. President of the International Congress of Surgery, in 1950.
17. President of the Argentine Delegation in the International
Congress of Industrial Medicine.
18. Member of Honor of the International College of Surgeons.
(Chicago-Zurich) .
19. Honorary member of the Argentine Society of Hygiene and Social
Medicine.
20. Member of Honor of the Peruvian Academy of Surgery, 1953.
21. Member of Honor of American Union of Industrial Medicine.
22. President and organizer of the Third Congress of Neurosurgery
(Republic of Argentine).
23. Honorary President and winner of the gold medal of the
"Permanent Economic Druggist Convention" to show gratitude for help
and legal assistance to private organization of Druggists.
VI. Universities (Honorary Degrees)
1. Honorary member of the University of Chile.
2. Doctor "Honorary Degree" of the University of Porto Alegre
(Brazil).
3. Honorary Professor of "Sanitary Organization" of the
Post-Graduate School of the Faculty of Medicine of Buenos Ayres.
4. Honorary Counselor of the Austrian Society for Public Health.
VII. Decorations
1. Republic of Paraguay. Great Official of the National Order of Merit,
1947.
2. Republic of France. Commander of the Order of the Public Health.
3. Dominican Republic. Order of Merit "Juan Fabio Duarte", in
the Rank of the Great Gross, Silver Star, 1948.
4. Republic of Bolivia. Grand Cross of the Order of the Condor of the
Andes, 1950.
5. Republic of Cuba. National Order of Merit "Carlos Manuel de
Céspedes", Havana, May 20, 1953. "
Croquis de este
sitio - Outline of this site
Índice - Table des matières - Inhaltsverzeichnis -
Table of Contents
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2006 – CINCUENTENARIO DE LA MUERTE DE CHRISTOFREDO JAKOB – 2006
2006 – CENTENARIO DEL NACIMIENTO DE BRAULIO MOYANO – 2006
2006 – Año de homenaje al Dr. Ramón Carrillo – 2006
en el quincuagésimo aniversario
de su deceso
Decreto 1558/2005 de la Presidencia de la Nación
Ver debajo las publicaciones
concernientes al mismo
2006 – A TREINTA AÑOS DE LA PATENTE BRITÁNICA 1.582.301 – 2006
Haga doble
"click" en el título de cualquier artículo, para leerlo ahora -
Double-click on any article to read it now:
SOCIOLOGÍA DE LAS NEUROCIENCIAS
Pour comprendre
l'enjeu : L’anthropologie ganglionnaire, un psychovirus démasqué (français)
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L'aliénisme en
Argentine : Diego Alcorta (1827) : Dissertation sur la manie... aiguë?
(français)
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o .DOC (320 kB).
Metaphors at odds in conceiving organismal-societal government: The Political Structure of the Brain: Cerebral Localization in Bismarckian Germany
(English)
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ELECTRONEUROBIOLOGÍA
Efectos
relativísticos en biofísica cerebral:
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SUMARIO Y
PÁRRAFOS INICIALES EN CASTELLANO
Diversificación
de recursos electroneurobiológicos en la evolución del sistema nervioso:
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Cálculo
de potenciales dentro de las células
Calcule
intensidades eléctricas y magnéticas en cada compartimiento neuronal: The nervous principle: active versus passive electric
processes in neurons (Explains how to calculate electric and magnetic
field strengths inside different neuronal compartments) (LONG FILE IN ENGLISH with
Bulgarian, Russian and Spanish abstracts/TOCs)
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Evaluación de
potenciales fuera de las células
Signal analysis to exploit the information of steady-state recordings: Do’s and don’ts in Fourier analysis of steady-state potentials
(Assumptions in the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) not necessarily fulfilled in real-world applications) (English)
NOCIONES GENERALES
Conceptos:
Noticia general -- ¿Qué es electroneurobiología? -- La
atmósfera intelectual (all in Spanish) -- Main Technical Ideas / Conceptos
técnicos principales (English and
Spanish) -- El descubrimiento de la Doppelrinde (German and Spanish)
Comentando una "ilusión óptica" / Commenting an "optical illusion":
A visual yet non-optical subjective intonation:
una entonación subjetiva visual pero no óptica
(English and
Spanish)
UNA EXPLICACIÓN ESENCIAL:
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Historia de las
experimentaciones:
Table of Contents (partial) of "Sensing: a new
fundamental action of nature" (English) -- Índices
1976: La introducción de los conceptos de eclosión existencial y de conocimiento como reacción causal.
A treinta años de la patente británica UK 1582301: inserción del psiquismo en el arco sensoriomotor (Spanish)
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Recepción
de los aportes de Chr. Jakob en la neurobiología germana
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Adolf von Strümpell (1853-1926) fue factor definitorio en la ruptura de Josef Breuer con Sigmund Freud. Los vínculos de amistad que unían a Christofredo Jakob (1866-1956) con su ilustre maestro y buen amigo nunca se resintieron por la separación que les impusiera la distancia y el tiempo; Jakob, asimismo, respetó el secreto de von Strümpell acerca de la enfermedad que padecía Lenin. -- Oddo y ot.: El Maestro de la medicina platense Christofredo Jakob, discípulo y amigo de Adolf von Strümpell
(Spanish: ARCHIVO DE DESCARGA LENTA POR LLEVAR MUCHAS ILUSTRACIONES)
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Recepción
de los aportes de Chr. Jakob en la neurobiología y la sociedad argentina
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Piva y Virasoro - Christofredo
Jakob, neurobiólogo: científico en diálogo filosófico (Spanish)
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Panorama
evolutivo:
¡Nuevo! Diego Luis Outes - A medio siglo de la muerte de Christofredo Jakob, 1956-2006: Fuentes de la concepción biológica de la Doble Corteza (Spanish)
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FILOSOFÍA DE LA CIENCIA - CONCEPTO DE TIEMPO EN
NEUROBIOFÍSICA
Why is
Time Frame-dependent in Relativity? Minkowski's spacetime as a Kantian
'condition of possibility' for relativistic calculations (English) -- Abstract: Minkowski spacetime is a condition
of possibility for relativistic calculations. It keeps special relativity
kinematic (i.e. avoids introducing it it causal dynamics) but in exchange
forces relativistic observers to describe at once past, present, and future
states along the length of the observed moving entities. This has been
considered a proof that past and future components of real entities enjoy an
unremitting mode of existence, because, if the world described by relativity
were three-dimensional, the kinematic consequences of special relativity and
the experiments confirming them would be impossible. The latter is acknowledged
as exact but the assumed proof is viewed as incorrect because, such imposition
being a Kantian condition of possibility, it cannot reveal anything about what
Kant called noumenon, namely extramentality. ( Traducción castellana en preparación ).
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RESUMEN
DIVULGATORIO Y PARA ESTUDIANTES EN CASTELLANO
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“ANTAGONISMO ENTRE
CIENCIAS DURAS Y HUMANIDADES BLANDAS”
MALFORMACIONES Y PAPEL DEL ÓRGANO CEREBRAL
Christofredo Jakob: “Los
Monstruos Anencéfalos” (Spanish)
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BIOÉTICA
Éthique de la Bio-Éthique (français) ¡Nuevo!
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EL PRESUNTO
DUALISMO CUERPO - ALMA
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PSICOANÁLISIS Y
FACILITACIóN PSICOSOMÁTICA DE
LA ENF. DE ALZHEIMER
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PERICIAS
JUDICIALES Y CASUÍSTICA
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NUESTRA GENTE
Arturo Carrillo, con la colaboración de Augusto Raúl Carrillo : segmentos de su libro "Ramón Carrillo. El hombre... El médico... El sanitarista"
(Spanish)
Libro declarado de Interés Cultural por la Legislatura de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires
seguidos de una
Noticia biográfica del Dr. Arturo Carrillo (Spanish)
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_____________________________
Breve reseña biográfica: Ramón Carrillo, el Gran
Sanitarista Argentino, por Marcos Ordóñez (Spanish)
ESCATOLOGÍA – POSTMORTALIDAD – EL PUESTO DE LA HUMANIDAD EN LO REAL
(ESCHATOLOGIE – LEBEN NACH DEM TOD – DIE STELLUNG
DES MENSCHEN IM KOSMOS)
A Palindrome: Conscious Living Creatures as Instruments of Nature; Nature as an Instrument of Conscious Living Creatures. Cuando tanto materialistas como idealistas nos describen todas las cosas tomadas en conjunto, hoy los científicos les podemos replicar: "Sé verlas al revés" (English).
[Nota para distraídos: "Sé verlas al revés" es también un palindrome]
SUMMARY: It is reported a palindromic relationship between the astrophysical-biological evolution and the experiencing beings in it. The issue is related with ascertaining if nature is an instrument (as merely a means), instead of having any intrinsic value (an end in itself); and, likewise, if conscious beings are merely a means (one to entropize nature faster) or either possess any intrinsic value. Two possibilities are deemed not indifferent in this regard: either reading the whole set of empirically-found realities or facts makes sense in both directions (palindromic reading of nature), or, rather, that sense can only be ascribed to such a set by reading it in some single direction. A single direction means reading nature in a classic, materialist or idealist sense; both directions' sense means a mirror or reciprocal functionalization, in which each of both realities (mind-possessing living creatures, and astrophysical-biospheric evolution) uses for its own ends the reality that uses it as a means. At stake, therefore, is establishing if axiological readings ascribing a sense to what is found going on in the universe can be obtained in both directions, or not. On this alternative, it is claimed, pivots the possibility of ascertaining, e.g., whether conscious beings are worthier than non-conscious nature, or not - a topic assumed consequential for philosophy, ecology, ecofeminism and biocentric environmental movements, and ethics.
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PROCEDIMIENTO
Los "Cortes de Jakob": Christofredo Jakob: La técnica moderna en la autopsia del cerebro. Exposición clara y didáctica de la técnica, por su autor, con ilustraciones y la explicación de sus fundamentos (Spanish).
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Estos artículos cubren sólo algunos de los temas que se explorarán en este documentado sitio de Red, por ahora en construcción. Abrirá completo en unos meses.
These texts cover just some of the topics that will be explored at this extensive website which is now under construction. In a few months it will open in full.
Introducción (English
opening below): Mientras las
neurociencias, como rama de la investigación biomédica, son una herramienta
para combatir la enfermedad, como rama de las humanidades son una herramienta
para sondear la condición humana. Por ser ambas cosas, las neurociencias
aportan una descripción de la gente cuya veracidad se tiene por fundada en la
eficacia de esas neurociencias para sugerir remedios contra las enfermedades.
Esta eficacia hace creíble su descripción. Tal como cualquier autorretrato
creíble, asimismo la autodescripción neurocientífica induce a la gente a
aceptar o rechazar ciertas perspectivas sociales y medidas de gobierno – por
donde la descripción neurocientífica de la gente también se torna herramienta
política. Ello ocurre de modo similar a como algunos intereses se benefician y
otros se perjudican con las ideas acerca de la condición humana propagadas por,
digamos, el subjetivismo de The Matrix o la negación gnosticista por “Harry
Potter” de ciertos límites en nuestras capacidades. La electroneurobiología es
la parte de las neurociencias que estudia dentro del tejido cerebral las
fluctuaciones, orquestadas biológica o psicológicamente, de cierto campo
físico, a saber el campo eléctrico, que ya es bastante bien conocido por otras
áreas de la tecnociencia contemporánea. Este campo eléctrico se superpone con
otro campo físico y las fluctuaciones de ambos se acoplan intimamente; el
segundo es aquél campo físico en cuyas diferentes parcelas la gente encuentra
más precisamente localizados en la naturaleza sus intercambios causales. Por
cuanto aún no podemos manipular ni sondear de otra manera este último campo –
tal como también ocurre, por ejemplo, con el campo gravitatorio – nuestro único
acceso a este segundo campo es el acople electroneurobiológico con el mismo.
Debido a esta circunstancia la electroneurobiología se torna cardinal para los
roles científico, humanístico y político para los que se instrumentan las
neurociencias. La revista Electroneurobiología, fundada en 1993 como
suplemento especializado de la Folia Neurobiológica Argentina iniciada
en 1939 por C. Jakob, cubre temáticamente todos estos roles de su disciplina:
tanto las cuestiones humanísticas cuanto las atingentes a las ciencias
biomédicas y a la pragmática sociopolítica.
Este sitio de red presenta versiones completas y de
acceso público de una selección de los artículos de Electroneurobiologia.
Estos pues tratan los temas o áreas aludidos por las palabras clave listadas al
pie de esta Introducción. Algunas de esas palabras están en diversos idiomas,
tal como se las emplea en ciertos artículos. Deseamos y esperamos ser capaces
de presentar los trabajos de investigación con al menos los resúmenes en los
idiomas oficiales de los países del Mercosur – castellano, portugués y guaraní
–así como en otros lenguajes tradicionales de la ciencia como francés, alemán e
inglés y algunos otros de culturas no occidentales. Pero mantener en línea Electroneurobiologia
no es ni el único ni el principal esfuerzo en que estamos comprometidos los
científicos de este Laboratorio. Será bienvenida toda ayuda para traducir hacia
cualquier idioma los resúmenes o, como ideal, los artículos. Incluso esbozos
preliminares de esas traducciones serían muy útiles, ya que nosotros luego
podríamos procurar refinarlos. Si usted aprecia la importancia de estos
resultados investigativos y puede y quiere ayudar a comunicarlos con traducciones
o esbozos de ellas hacia cualquier idioma, por favor contáctenos en el correo
electrónico indicado arriba.
Nota sobre neuromercadeo ("neuromarketing") y neuroeconomía (agregada en diciembre de 2005): Cierto número de lectores llegan ahora a esta revista en búsqueda de ideas técnicas útiles para juzgar acerca del neuromercadeo y la neuroeconomia. Mientras que no nos es posible dedicar los esfuerzos adecuados para esclarecerles las insostenibles simplificaciones (a veces llamadas "neuromacaneo", neurobabble) rampantes en la mayoría de los tratamientos de dichos temas, puede serles útil apuntar aquí una breve evaluación, a guisa de conclusión. Varios artículos de esta revista sirven a clarificar por qué las imágenes de resonancia magnética nuclear funcional, o fMRI, que miden cambios del flujo sanguíneo cerebral para determinar la intensidad promedio de la actividad que genera ondas electroencefalográficas en diferentes áreas del cerebro, no pueden penetrar en el psiquismo.
La fMRI, antes bien, lleva a cabo solamente lo mismo que realiza la observación con moderno instrumental de cualquier otra conducta; esto es, describe con precisión algún aspecto de dicha conducta corporal, de modo de permitir al observador conjeturar mejor, siempre en base a su experiencia, la motivación psicológica de tal conducta – si es que cabe suponerle alguna. Las ondas eléctricas del tejido cerebral, lejos de constituir "la materia del pensamiento humano", son los "movimientos" del estado eléctrico cerebral – similares a los movimientos de un miembro, que también pueden ser voluntarios o involuntarios – por los cuales el órgano cerebral reacciona bien sea a ocurrencias extramentales o bien a iniciativas mentales.
Los psiquismos siguen siendo privados: persuadibles, quizás, pero incompartibles e inauguradores de cadenas causales originadas por decisiones privadas. En la precisa medida en que la investigación del consumo ("consumer research") impropiamente describe a los psiquismos como si fueran puramente reaccionantes, a las memorias como si fueran marcas en el cerebro, y a la atención como si solamente fuera movida por su objeto atendido, la maniobra de enseñar por todo el globo a las empresas cómo comunicarse eficaz e instantáneamente con el "botón de compra" ("buy button"), esa "parte del cerebro donde la decisión de adquirir tiene lugar", y así poner a los compradores en un estado de "dopamina alta" que desactive el "hemisferio analítico del cerebro", es sólo una manera de que tales enseñantes se construyan laboratorios de fachada para seguir sacándole dinero a las empresas – no de que estas últimas aumenten sus ingresos.
English opening: While neuroscience, as a branch of biomedical research, is a tool for
coping with disease, as a branch of humanities it is a tool for fathoming the human
condition. And because of its being both, neuroscience conveys a description of
people whose truth is held grounded upon the neuroscience’s effectiveness to
suggest remedies for disease. This effectiveness makes it believable. Like any
believable selfdepiction, the neuroscientific selfportrait induces people to
agree or disagree with specific societal views and governmental measures –
whereby the neuroscientific description of people also becomes a tool for
politics. It happens in a way similar as some interests benefit and others are
countered by ideas about the human condition vehicled through, say, The
Matrix’s subjectivism or “Harry Potter”’s gnosticist denial of certain
limits to one’s powers. Electroneurobiology is the part of neuroscience
studying within the brain tissue the biologically or psychologically
orchestrated fluctuations of certain physical field, namely the electric field,
that stands quite well known from other areas of contemporary technoscience.
The electric field overlaps and is intimately coupled with another physical
field, into different parcels of which field people find their causal
interactions the most immediately localized in nature. Since we cannot yet handle
or otherwise probe this later field – as it too happens, for example, with
regard to the gravitatory one – our sole current access to this later field is
the electroneurobiological coupling with it. Thereby electroneurobiology
becomes pivotal for the scientific, humanistic and political roles accomplished
by neuroscience. The journal Electroneurobiologia, founded in 1993 as a
specialized supplement of the 1939-started Folia Neurobiólogica Argentina,
covers all these roles of its branch of learning: the humanistic roles as well
as the ones in biomedical science and political affairs.
This website presents open-access, full-text versions of selected
articles of Electroneurobiologia,
thus dealing with the themes or areas referred to by the keywords recorded
at the end of this notice – some are non-English words, as they are used in
some articles. We wish and hope to be able of presenting the research papers
with at least the abstracts in the official languages of the Mercosur countries
– Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani – as
well as other traditional languages of Western science such as French, German
and English and some others of non-Western cultures. Yet keeping Electroneurobiologia
online is not the sole or the main effort in which the Laboratory’s scientists
are engaged. Any help to translate the abstracts or, ideally, the articles into
any language is welcome. Even preliminary drafts of such traslations are very
useful, as we can then procure to refine them. If you appreciate the importance
of these research results and can and wish help with translations or drafts
into whatever language, please contact us at the above e-mail.
Note on neuromarketing and neuroeconomics (added in December, 2005): A number of people nowadays come to this journal looking for technical insights useful to judge neuromarketing and neuroeconomics. While we cannot devote efforts to clarify for such special-purpose readers the untenable simplifications (not seldom called "neurobabble", neuromacaneo) rampant in most treatments of those fields, a brief conclusive assessment may be of help and is in order here. Several articles of this journal show why functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, which measures changes in blood flow in order to ascertain the average intensity of brain-wave generating activity in different areas of the brain, cannot delve into the mind.
fMRI rather does just the same as the instrumental observation of any other behavior, i.e. accurately depicts some aspects of this bodily behavior so as to allow the observer to guess its psychological motivation – if any at all. Brain waves, far from being "the stuff of human thought", are the "movements" of the brain's electrical state – like as the movements of a limb, which also may be voluntary or involuntary – whereby the brain organ reacts either to extramental events or to mental initiatives.
Minds remain private: persuasible, maybe, but unshareable and inaugurating causal chains on private decisions. Inasmuch as consumer research improperly describes minds as purely reactive, memories as cerebral marks, and attention as driven solely by the object, the endeavor, of teaching companies around the world how to communicate strongly and instantly to the "buy button", that "part of the brain where the purchase decision takes place", and causing the 'analytical side to fall away' by putting shoppers into a "high dopamine" state, is a way for the teachers to build facade laboratories and go on making money from the companies – not for the latter to increase revenues.
[Prof. Mariela Szirko
cuida estas páginas/cares of these pages.]