Justo Gonzalo facts for kids

Justo Gonzalo Rodríguez-Leal (1910-1986)

Justo Gonzalo Rodríguez-Leal (Barcelona, Spain, March 2, 1910 – Madrid, Spain, September 28, 1986) was a Spanish neuroscientist, which means he was a scientist who studied the brain and nervous system.

After finishing his medical degree, he went to Austria and Germany (1933–1935) to learn more, thanks to a special grant. He then did a lot of research on how the human brain works. Much of his work was based on studying brain injuries from the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

He discovered something he called the central syndrome of the cortex. This was a problem where a single injury on one side of the brain could affect many senses on both sides of the body. He explained this using ideas about how nerves get excited and a model he called brain dynamics. This model suggested that the brain works as one connected unit, helping to explain how different parts of the brain have special jobs.

Gonzalo also described interesting things like seeing images upside down or tilted. He also found that if someone had a brain injury, their senses could sometimes get better if they received another type of stimulus or made a physical effort. He was part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) from 1942 until he retired. He also taught 21 special courses for PhD students (1945-1966) about brain problems at the University of Madrid. He received awards for his important work.

His Amazing Brain Discoveries

Justo Gonzalo wrote an important book called Investigaciones sobre la nueva Dinámica Cerebral (Research on the New Brain Dynamics). This book was the first time the term Brain Dynamics was used in science to describe how our senses are organized in the brain.

The book came out in two parts. The first part, published in 1945, focused on how we see things. The second part, published in 1950, was about how we feel things by touch. In this book, he explained his discovery: the central syndrome of the cortex. This syndrome was a problem affecting many senses on both sides of the body. It was caused by a single injury in a specific part of the brain that connects what we see, touch, and hear.

How Brain Injuries Affect Senses

The central syndrome showed interesting effects. For example, a single injury could affect many senses and both sides of the body. It also affected all brain functions, from simple nerve excitement to more complex thinking.

One surprising effect was that as a stimulus became weaker, people with this syndrome would lose functions gradually. For example, their vision might become tilted or even completely upside down. The image would get more tilted as it lost its shape, color, and size, sometimes becoming almost fully inverted. This was the first detailed study of tilted or inverted vision.

Gonzalo also saw this inverted perception in touch (1950) and hearing (1952). No one had described these before. He realized that this inversion process happened in all spatial sensory systems affected by the central syndrome.

Complex thinking and understanding functions were often the first to be lost. This is because they need more brain activity and connection. Gonzalo showed that simple and higher sensory functions are connected and follow the same rules.

How the Brain Can Recover

Another amazing discovery was that some problems could partly disappear if the stimulus was made stronger. Or, if the stimulus was repeated many times. He also found that other senses or even physical effort could help. For example, touch, sound, or strong muscle effort could improve vision. This was called multisensory facilitation.

This meant that if a part of the brain was damaged, other parts could help make up for the lost brain activity. For example, a person's visual field (what they could see) might shrink. But Gonzalo found that it could expand up to five times, and the image could even return to the correct orientation with a strong muscle contraction. The bigger the brain injury, the more this recovery ability was seen.

Gonzalo also studied other unique problems. These included colors appearing in the wrong place, seeing movement backward, and people being able to read text upside down without noticing. He also studied problems with knowing where things are in space.

His research helped connect brain problems with how the nervous system works. He showed that observed problems followed the rules of nerve excitement. This was a big change from what scientists thought at the time.

Gonzalo found about 35 cases of the central syndrome with different levels of severity. He also studied a famous case known as the Schneider case, explaining it using his syndrome.

Brain Gradients and Similarity

Gonzalo suggested that our sensory abilities develop in a spiral way in the brain. He also introduced the idea of functional brain gradients. Imagine a map of the brain where some areas are very good at a specific sense, like vision. As you move away from that area, the ability for that specific sense gradually decreases. He used this idea to explain different brain syndromes.

Later, Gonzalo developed ideas of dynamic similarity and allometry for the central syndrome. This meant that the brain's activity changed in a special way after an injury. He found that different sensory functions changed differently but in a predictable way. This helped explain why functions were lost gradually in the central syndrome. He also applied these ideas to language. Much of this later research was not published until a reprint of his book in 2010.

His Early Life and Studies

Justo Gonzalo was born and lived in Barcelona, Spain. He then lived in Valencia, Spain, before returning to Barcelona. Finally, he moved to Madrid, Spain, to study medicine, where he earned his degree in 1933.

From 1933 to 1934, he studied clinical neurology and did animal testing at Vienna University. He also studied brain structure. From 1934 to 1935, he researched brain pathology in Germany, again with a scholarship.

After returning to Madrid, he worked as a neurologist at the Hospital General de Madrid. He also did brain research at the Cajal Institute. During this time, he wrote his first scientific papers.

The Spanish Civil War and After

When the Spanish Civil War started (1936–1939), Justo Gonzalo continued his work at the Hospital General de Madrid and the Cajal Institute. In 1937, he worked as a war doctor on the Republican front. In 1938, he was asked to work as a neurologist at a military hospital in Godella, Valencia.

He stayed there until the war ended. During this difficult time, he carefully observed many soldiers with brain injuries. He did a lot of his important research then, despite the tough conditions. He studied some cases very closely for several years.

In the summer of 1938, he discovered near-inverted vision in a wounded soldier. In 1939, he fully described the central syndrome of the cortex. He realized that these patients could recover some functions if they received repeated stimuli or if other senses or motor activity helped.

His first findings were presented in 1941 to the Spanish National Research Council. He received an award for his report. From 1942 to 1944, in Madrid, he was able to get more exact measurements of these brain phenomena, even though it was hard to find the right equipment.

In 1945, the Cajal Institute, which was part of the Spanish National Research Council, published the first part of his book on Brain Dynamics. This book mainly focused on vision.

His book received praise from many scientists, even internationally, despite being written in Spanish. For example, a famous Italian magazine called it "a very accurate study carried out for years... The book is very rich in objective observations, most of them original and of great interest." Another American scientist noted that no other book in English had covered the same scope of research based on Spanish Civil War injuries. Many other famous scientists also sent him letters of praise.

From 1942 until he retired, Justo Gonzalo worked full-time at the Spanish National Research Council. From 1945, he taught special PhD courses about brain problems at the University of Madrid. He worked mostly alone on the scientific side, sometimes getting help from former students and his family. His wife, Ana María Fonrodona Masuet, also supported him from 1945.

Later Years of Research

In 1950, the second part of his Brain Dynamics book was published. This part focused on touch and expanded on the ideas from the first book. In it, Justo Gonzalo described his discovery of tactile inversion in 1946, which had no previous records. He then showed that this inversion process in the central syndrome applied to all senses that deal with space, confirming it for the auditory system in 1946. In 1950, he received an award from the Spanish Royal Academy of Medicine.

In his papers from 1951 and 1952, Gonzalo shared his ideas about the spiral development of the sensory field and the functional brain gradients across the cortex. He had already explained these ideas in detail in his PhD courses. In his 1952 publication, he included about 20 cases of central syndromes with different levels of severity.

In 1952, he searched all over Spain for people with brain injuries. He found about 200 cases out of nearly 3000. Most were from the Civil War. He studied them in Madrid and found 35 cases with the central syndrome.

In his PhD courses, which he taught with great passion, he also explained his ideas of dynamic similarity and allometry. These ideas suggested that the central syndrome was like a change in scale in how the nervous system gets excited. He didn't publish these ideas himself, but they were included in later works.

Many students praised his PhD courses. In 1967, a special publication about neurology mentioned him: "Justo Gonzalo, a clinician and researcher out of the common... giving an original solution - the concept of gradients - to the problem of localization of the different functions in the cerebral cortex... his presence in the University as professor of a PhD course, is -with his original, updated, sharp course- the only encouragement to neurological vocations that has been present for years and years in the Faculty of Medicine of Madrid."

In 1958, he received an award from the Spanish Society of Psychology. His book was often mentioned during this time.

Unfortunately, his book went out of print and was never reprinted. In 1966, changes at the Faculty of Medicine stopped him from teaching his PhD courses, even though students loved them and other professors asked for them to continue. His brain pathophysiology laboratory also closed.

During these years, he had many large graphs drawn for teaching and for a big book he planned to publish. But this book never came out. This was partly because he was very demanding of himself and preferred to share his full research only in his courses. There were also many administrative problems and, later, health issues.

His Final Years

Justo Gonzalo continued to develop his ideas of similarity and allometry. He based them on how living things grow and develop. He applied these to brain dynamics and even to the auditory system and language. He called this new field "neurophysics" of the brain. Some of this research was collected in a 2010 reprint of his book and in later works by other scientists.

He also explored many other subjects like Biology, Philosophy, Physics, and Cybernetics. He found connections between these fields and his brain dynamics research.

His ideas about "brain dynamics" also became interesting to philosophers and those working in Artificial Intelligence.

In 1976, he started working with physicists and engineers interested in using computer models to understand brain dynamics. In one important PhD thesis, Gonzalo's ideas and data were considered key to understanding how nervous tissue works in relation to behavior.

His research continued until he passed away in 1986.

More About Justo Gonzalo

After Justo Gonzalo's death, his work continued to influence the field of Artificial Intelligence.

His work is also mentioned in historical and neurological studies. For example, some say that "Besides Santiago Ramon y Cajal, several authors can be considered founders of the Spanish Neuroscience and Neuropsychology such as Cubí, Simarro, Lafora, Gonzalo, Lorente de Nó." This means he is seen as one of the important founders of brain science in Spain.

Studies in the 2000s have found similar things to what Justo Gonzalo described, like tilted or inverted perception and how different senses work together. New brain models are also similar to his ideas. His work is still being presented and explained in today's scientific world.

In 2010, to celebrate 100 years since his birth, a group called the Red Temática en Tecnologías de Computación Artificial/Natural (Thematic Network on Artificial/Natural Computation Technologies), along with the University of Santiago de Compostela, published a special reprint of his two books from 1945 and 1950. They also included new parts that had never been published before. This large, 1000-page work is called Dinámica Cerebral and is available for free online.

Justo Gonzalo's personal library was given to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The part about neurobiology, including about 200 brain tissue samples he prepared, is now at the Cajal Institute.

Justo Gonzalo's Published Works

• Gonzalo, J. (1933). «Los factores endógenos en la corea de Sydenham». Archivos de Neurobiología XIII(4,5,6): pp. 1–15. ISSN 0212-9329.
• Gonzalo, J. (1934). «Contribución al estudio del esquizoide». Archivos de Neurobiología XIV(6): pp. 1–17. ISSN 0212-9329.
• Gonzalo, J. (1934). «Los tipos de motilidad. Contribución a la sistemática del movimiento.» Archivos de Neurobiología XIV(1): pp: 1-23. ISSN 0212-9329.
• Gonzalo, J. (1935). «Contestación al Dr. Nieto». Archivos de Neurobiología XV(3): pp. 417–421. ISSN 0212-9329.
• Gonzalo, J. (1935). «Sobre la localización y fisiopatología del tálamo y del subtálamo». Archivos de Neurobiología XV(4): pp. 625–668. ISSN 0212-9329
• Gonzalo, J. (1936). «Nuevos estudios talámicos. Síndrome talámico puro por degeneración secundaria». Archivos de Neurobiología. Marzo. pp. 111–129. ISSN 0212-9329
• Kleist, V.K.; Gonzalo, J. (1938). «Über Thalamus und Subthalamussyndrome und die Störungen einzelner Thalamuskerne». Monastsschrift für Psychiatrie und Neurologie 99: pp. 87–130.
• Gonzalo, J. (1945). Investigaciones sobre la nueva Dinámica Cerebral. La actividad cerebral en función de las condiciones dinámicas de la excitabilidad nerviosa. Volumen Primero: pp. 1–392. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Inst. S. Ramón y Cajal. Included as Vol. 1 in the facsimile edition of 2010 Dinámica Cerebral, Open Access. English translation (2021), Open Access.
• Gonzalo, J. (1950). Investigaciones sobre la nueva Dinámica Cerebral. La actividad cerebral en función de las condiciones dinámicas de la excitabilidad nerviosa. Volumen Segundo: pp. 393–827. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Inst. S. Ramón y Cajal. Included as Vol. 2 in the facsimile edition of 2010 Dinámica Cerebral, Open Access. English translation of Vol. 2 1950 (2022) Open Access.
• Gonzalo, J. (1951). «La cerebración sensorial y el desarrollo espiral». Trabajos del Inst. Cajal de Investigaciones Biológicas XLIII: pp. 209–260.
• Gonzalo, J. (1952) «Las funciones cerebrales humanas según nuevos datos y bases fisiológicas. Una introducción a los estudios de Dinámica Cerebral». Trabajos del Inst. Cajal de Investigaciones Biológicas XLIV: pp. 95–157. Included as 'Suplemento I' in the facsimile edition of 2010 Dinámica Cerebral, Open Access, English translation (2015), Open Access.
• Gonzalo, J. (1994). Brain Dynamics According to Human Data and Physiological Bases. (Traducción resumida de la publicación de 1952). Edited by I. Gonzalo and A. Gonzalo, Madrid. ISBN: 84-604-9611-2
• Gonzalo, J. (2010). Dinámica Cerebral. Facsimile edition of Vol.1 (1945), Vol.2 (1950), Suplemento I (article of 1952) and first edition of Suplemento II , Open Access.

Works on Justo Gonzalo's Research Work

• Ballus, C. (1970). «La maniobra de refuerzo de J. Gonzalo y su objetivización por el test oscilométrico». Anuario de Psicología. Dep. Psicología, Univ. de Barcelona 2: pp. 19–28.
• Gonzalo, I.; Gonzalo, A. (1996). «Functional gradients in cerebral dynamics: The J. Gonzalo theories of the sensorial cortex». In Moreno-Díaz, R.; Mira, J. (Eds.) Brain Processes, Theories and Models. An international conference in honor of W.S. McCulloch 25 years after his death. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. pp. 78–87.
• Gonzalo, I. (1997). «Allometry in the J. Gonzalo's model of the sensorial cortex». Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 1240: pp. 169–177. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0032475
• Gonzalo, I. (1999). «Spatial Inversion and Facilitation in the J. Gonzalo's Research of the Sensorial Cortex. Integrative Aspects». Lect. Not. Comp. Sci. (LNCS) 1606: pp. 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0098164
• Gonzalo, I.; Porras, M.A. (2001). «Time-dispersive effects in the J. Gonzalo's research on cerebral dynamics». Lect. Not. Comp. Sci. (LNCS) 2084: pp. 150–157. https://doi:10.1007/3-540-45720-8_18
• Gonzalo, I.; Porras, M.A. (2003). «Intersensorial summation as a nonlinear contribution to cerebral excitation». Lect. Not. Comp. Sci. (LNCS) 2686: pp. 94–101. https://doi:10.1007/3-540-44868-3_13
• Arias, M.; Gonzalo, I. (2004). «La obra neurocientífica de Justo Gonzalo (1910-1986): el síndrome central y la metamorfopsia invertida». Neurología 19: pp. 429–433.
• Barraquer Bordas, L. (2005). «La dinámica cerebral de Justo Gonzalo en la historia [`Brain dynamics' of Justo Gonzalo in history]». Neurología 20: pp. 169–173.
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I. (2007). «Inverted or tilted perception disorder». Revista de Neurología 44(3): pp. 157–165.
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2007). «Physiological Laws of Sensory Visual System in Relation to Scaling Power Laws in Biological Neural Networks». Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 4527: pp. 96–102. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73053-8_10
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I. (2009). «Functional gradients through the cortex, multisensory integration and scaling laws in brain dynamics». Neurocomputing 72: pp. 831–838. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2008.04.055
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2009). «Scaling Power Laws in the Restoration of Perception with Increasing Stimulus in Deficitary Natural Neural Network». Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 5601: pp. 174–183. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02264-7_19
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2011). «Scaling Effects in Crossmodal Improvement of Visual Perception». Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 6687: pp. 267–274. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21326-7_29
• Gonzalo Fonrodona, I. (2011). «Justo Gonzalo (1919-1986) y su investigación sobre dinámica cerebral». Rev. Historia de la Psicología 32: pp. 65–78. ISSN 0211-0040.
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2013). «Scaling effects in crossmodal improvement of visual perception by motor system stimulus». Neurocomputing 114: pp. 76–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2012.06.047
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2013). «Deficitary nervous excitability and subjective contraction of time: Time-dispersive model». Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) 7930: pp. 368–375. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38637-4_38
• Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I.; Porras, M.A. (2014). «Nervous excitability dynamics in a multisensory síndrome and its similitude with normals. Scaling Laws», Open Access. In: Costa, A.; Villalba, E. (Eds.) Horizons in Neuroscience Vol. 13: Chap.10, pp. 161–189. ISBN: 978-1-62948-426-6
• Gonzalo Fonrodona, I. (2015). «The pioneering research of justo Gonzalo (1910-1986) on brain dynamics». Open Access. (Includes English translation of the article Gonzalo, J. (1952) «Las funciones cerebrales humanas según nuevos datos y bases fisiológicas. Una introducción a los estudios de Dinámica Cerebral» Traba. Inst. Cajal Investig. Biológ. XLIII: pp. 209–260). E-prints Complutense, Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM).
• García-Molina, A. (2015). «Justo Gonzalo’s groundbreaking contributions to the study of cerebral functional organisation». Neurosciences and History 3(2): pp. 61–67.
• García-Molina, A.; Gonzalo-Fonrodona, I. (2023). «Redescubriendo al paciente M: Justo Gonzalo Rodríguez-Leal y su teoría de la dinámica cerebral». Rev. Neurol. 76 (7): pp. 231-241.

See also

In Spanish: Justo Gonzalo para niños